Chuck vs the 42 Year Old Virgin
by P.J. Murphy
Summary: Chuck, Sarah, and Casey must deal with an old friend in trouble, a cold-hearted nemesis, the Russian Mafia, and two billion dollars in terrorist funds. Sequel to Chuck vs. the Alpha Version. Season 4 story, lighter with more Charah. Story now complete.
1. Ponch Would Be Proud

_Now here is some optimism for you. This is a Season 4 story. It is a follow-up to "Chuck vs. the Alpha Version." Everything pretty much remains the same. Chuck and Sarah are together, The Ring is building itself back up after being crippled at the end of the previous story, and Casey is still Casey. This is a much lighter story, I promise. Hopefully it's funnier as well. A few surprises as well, and I'm throwing in more Charah._

_As always, let me know what you think. Reviews are how you get more chapters._

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Unknown Location, Los Angeles  
September 15, 2010  
10:00 AM**_

Roger looked at the men in front of him. Six of the seven were hired muscle. Judging by their clothing and slightly unfocused looks, they didn't appear to be picked from the best and the brightest. Then again, the seventh person wasn't exactly a Rhodes Scholar, either. He was on the maintenance crew at Nellis. A security check conducted 6 months ago raised no red flags, according to the dossier Roger was given. He couldn't figure out the motivation behind Alexander stealing the memory stick from his computer. Did someone leak information on the project he was working on? If that was the case, who gave him the information? And what did he intend to do with it?

Maybe it was as simple as a money grab. A finder's fee for obtaining the overseas bank accounts of over $2 billion in terrorist funding would have to be at least $100 million. That's a lot of money for stealing something the size of a pack of gum. Clearly Alexander didn't know what he had, but did someone else?

Judging by the confident grin on his face, it was obvious Alexander thought Roger was just a computer jockey. What Alexander didn't know was he didn't even possess the memory stick with the bank accounts on it. Roger wasn't that stupid. The files were still in Las Vegas. He had been working for a month on cracking the encryption programming so that the government could seize the funds. He worked by himself on the case for the purpose of avoiding the exact situation he was in now. So much for security at Nellis. General Beckman's order to pursue the thief was handled with extreme care and secrecy. The two of them were the only ones to know what was really on the memory stick. Not even Alexander knew what he had in his hand. Roger did; the stolen memory stick had a tracking device on it. It was a passive tracking system, meaning he had to do all the work. But it was also undetectable. It allowed him to track the device from Las Vegas to wherever he was in Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Roger's pursuit skills desperately needed work. He had barely caught up to Alexander when he was surrounded by men pointing guns to his head. He had no idea how many cameras were on the site, but it would be hard to convince him he didn't make a huge mistake. Alexander probably figured Roger just got lucky, and his luck was about to run out with the six goons that surrounded him now.

"This should fetch me more than enough to retire on," Alexander waved the wrong memory stick defiantly at Roger. "Just need to tie up a loose end. No witnesses."

Roger smiled at the six goons. "So, is he paying you enough for this? Remember, minimum wage went up to $7.25 an hour last year, so don't let him stiff you."

Perhaps it wasn't best to antagonize people who were about to kill him. But if your life was about to end, you might as well go out on a good one-liner.

Alexander gave a quick wave goodbye as the six thugs moved towards Roger. He glanced up and noticed a pipe. Even if he could leap up to that pipe, it didn't look strong enough to support his 400 pounds. But something suddenly dawned on him.

He didn't weigh 400 pounds anymore. He was only about half of that. Perhaps this would work.

He jumped and grabbed the pipe. He kicked out his legs in opposite directions, landing shots to the chins of two of the men. He landed and immediately threw two punches that took out two more thugs. He spun, pivoting on his right foot, and landed another kick to the man behind him. He brought the left leg down that just took out the fifth man and pushed off of it. He spun in the air and took out the final thug with a heel to the side of the head. He looked around at the six men on the ground.

_Holy shit! Did I just do that? _He couldn't believe it.

He looked at his arms and legs as if they were foreign objects. Roger swore that couldn't have taken more than 8 seconds. The instructors that taught him those moves said that few people had done as well with the training as he did in such a short time. However, like almost everybody who heaped praise on him, he never believed them. In this case, it appeared they were right, judging by the evidence laying on ground. He stared at his hands as if they were brand new.

"Hmm, upgrades."

His mind snapped back to reality. He still had a thief to catch. He sprinted out of the building, the morning sun somehow cutting through the smog to blind him as he went out. He hugged the wall of the building, moving stealthily around the corner. It appeared Alexander was suffering from a case of overconfidence, as he had just gotten to his car. Roger took out his custom-made mobile phone. A CIA technician who had been flown out to Nellis and saw way too many Bond movies as a kid was more than happy to help him upgrade the car the Agency provided. The Mustang convertible the CIA seized from a small-time arms dealer managed to blend in quite well in Los Angeles. The technician reprogrammed the computer inside the car to be compatible with the new smartphone Roger possessed. So far, he could only control the steering, acceleration, and brakes, but the technician only had a month to develop the program. Roger shuddered at the thought of what this kid could do if he had more time to work on the car.

Alexander got in his own car and drove off. Roger sprinted for the convertible and got inside. He took off in the same direction as Alexander. He wished that he could call for some backup, but he was maintaining orders to work alone on this. The fewer people that knew, the better. The thirty-foot cushion that he was advised to use when tailing a suspect was something he didn't forget. Since Alexander pulled onto the freeway, Roger assumed that the cushion should be a bit wider. He kept at least two cars between him and Alexander.

As Alexander switched lanes, Roger was forced to go around a school bus to maintain visual contact with the vehicle. He turned his head to make sure he gave enough distance between himself and the bus as he moved back into the lane. He turned his head forward just in time to see Alexander point a gun at his car. He veered out of the way of the first shot. Roger kept his head down while accelerating. There was no point in maintaining a distance now; he had been discovered. He continued to move forward, occasionally swerving as shots continued to whiz by. He saw Alexander's car hit a pothole, and two shots were fired. Roger quickly swerved to avoid the bullets and the pothole. He was ready to accelerate back towards Alexander's vehicle when he was rammed from behind. He countersteered quickly to get the Mustang back under control when he was again clipped from behind.

Roger turned around to see the school bus behind him. The driver was slumped over the wheel. A bullet hole had gone through the window where the driver's shoulder would be.

His eyes widened. Alexander was getting away, and the bus was starting to swerve back and forth. He could see half a dozen kids near the front of the bus with looks of panic on their faces. He looked forward at Alexander who was now accelerating to 90 miles per hour on the freeway. He would escape if Roger didn't floor it.

Roger made a decision that most people would consider crazy. His bosses will likely rip him a new one for doing it. But in his mind, the bus wouldn't be in danger if it wasn't for him.

He grabbed the smartphone and accessed the satellite guidance program. The Mustang's GPS program was locked into a military satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the west coast. He locked the tracker in the phone as well to the same satellite. The CIA technician boasted the program he wrote would let the satellite control the car and keep it within 50 yards of the phone yet still drive on the road safely. Of course, this would be the first time his claim was tested.

Roger activated the system and stood up in the driver's seat. The program seemed to be working fine thus far. The car was steering itself. He climbed into the back seat of the convertible, holding on to the headrests. The bus moved forward again, inching closer to the convertible. Roger put one foot up on the trunk. 10 feet to contact, 8 feet, six feet, four feet…

Roger pushed off the trunk of the car, leaping into the air towards the bus. His left hand grabbed the hood of the bus, and his right hand grabbed one of the windshield wiper arms. He managed to get his feet on the front fender before the wiper arm broke off. He clung to the front of the bus. He stepped carefully to his left, making his way slowly across the fender. He got to the right side of the front window and reached around to the door. He pulled it open, carefully swung his left foot around, and managed to get it on a step inside the bus. He grabbed the handle on the door with his left hand and pulled himself the rest of the way inside the bus. He climbed up the two stairs quickly. Half of the kids were screaming and a few were crying.

"Good morning, Maierhofer Bus Company. I'm your substitute driver, Mr. Traven. If you'll just give me a minute, I'll try to make this as smooth of a ride as possible. Meanwhile, remain seated and calm, no fighting, no singing the 'Diarrhea' song, and no wiping your boogers on the backs of the seats. And I mean you, in the tenth row."

Roger went to the driver and pulled her foot off of the accelerator. The bus began to slow down as he gently pushed the driver back and took control of the wheel. He turned the wheel back and forth slowly to straighten the bus' path. He noticed the driver bleeding profusely just below her right shoulder blade.

"Dammit." He took off his jacket. The bus was still moving fast. He looked behind him. "Anybody here watch good bloody horror flicks when their parents aren't home? I promise, I won't rat on you."

A kid in the third row raised his hand. "Good, come up here." Roger put the jacket around the front and the back of the driver's wounded shoulder. He pointed to the two spots where the bullet hole entered and exited the driver to the student. "Keep your hands there and there on her shoulder. And if you gotta blow chunks, try to aim left."

He slid his foot under the driver's leg and found the brake pedal. He slowly pressed down to stop the bus. He steered the bus slowly to the left shoulder. The Mustang slowed down with the bus. The kid holding the jacket on the driver looked at the Mustang and was amazed. He looked up at Roger.

"Oh, we're just testing the car for the next Fast and Furious movie. We don't know who will get to drive it. Knowing Paul Walker, he'll cry and whine to get first choice."

The bus came to a stop on the left shoulder of the freeway. Roger gently pulled the driver to the floor of the bus, placing her legs in a slightly elevated position. He could hear sirens in the background; their sound getting louder and louder. He wasn't in much of a mood to file a report on this.

"OK, keep pressure on those spots until the paramedics get here," Roger directed the student helping him. He got up and addressed the kids. "Thanks for your help. Stay on the bus, wait for the cops to arrive, and if anybody asks…" he pointed to a small, shy girl in the first row, "…she saved the day. I was never here."

Roger bounded off the bus and leapt into the Mustang. He floored it to try and get away from being recognized or stopped. So far, the two or three police vehicles he saw before getting in the car stopped at the bus. Perhaps he still had a shot at catching Alexander.

The five California Highway Patrol cars that entered the freeway at the ramp he just passed ended that hope quickly.

The patrol cars made their way toward his position quickly. He pushed the Mustang to over 100 miles per hour, hoping to outrun them. He didn't know if they're coming to arrest him or thank him. Neither option sounded appealing. He then heard the sound of a helicopter. Several helicopters, in fact. Looking up and to his left, he spotted 5 helicopters closing on the freeway. However, only one of them appeared to belong to the police. He alternated between weaving through the lanes of the freeway and looking back at the helicopters. He spotted what was written on the sides of two of them. They were television network logos.

_Aaah hell,_ he thought.

He didn't need extensive training to know there was only one thing worse than being arrested or being captured: being on TV. The proverbial shinola was about to hit the fan. He was in trouble. This one-man operation was about to go public. He only had one option now.

He punched a sequence of buttons on the car's radio.

_**Castle Underground Facility  
September 15, 2010  
10:35 AM**_

Chuck Bartowski and Colonel John Casey bounded down the stairs from Zork Computer Consultants. In a way, they were lucky: they didn't have any customers in the office today, and Morgan was hanging out with Anna during her break over at the Buy More. Chuck left a note for Morgan that they had an emergency with one of their setups at a client's location. Their actual destination would be nowhere near their two current customer setups.

Casey checked his mobile phone. The Code 14 came in one minute ago, and satellite recon was downloading the location of the code to his phone. It was being triangulated on the 710 Freeway, but an exact location would still take another minute or two to pinpoint.

This was the first time Chuck would get to respond to a situation like this. They practiced this drill every four months, just so he knew the correct protocols and instructions for handling the distress signal. There were two codes that required what they were doing. A Code 11 indicated a CIA operative was in distress and needed emergency extraction. However, a Code 14 was worse. Not only did the operative need extraction, their tracks would have to be covered, either because they had been exposed as an agent or were about to be.

They got to the changing closet in Castle, where Agent Sarah Walker was already putting on her uniform for this scenario. Chuck and she would wear the same EMT white shirt and black pants while Casey donned firefighter's gear and boots. As Casey received actual training as a firefighter while in the Army, it was logical for him to play that role. What Chuck found funny the 3 times they practiced it was that Sarah would sneak the occasional peek at Casey's attire. It always made Chuck smirk. It must be a universal attraction on the part of women towards firefighters. Maybe it was the hero aspect, the manly ruggedness, or that you rarely saw an unattractive firefighter. In a way, Chuck found it cute when he discovered little quirks like that in her that most women would have. She would certainly hate to admit she had the same wants and desires as most other women. Agents were supposed to be above that, after all.

They rushed to a hallway in Castle behind the holding cells. Casey punched in a code, and they went through a secured door to an underground garage. An ambulance was parked underneath, complete with L.A. County Fire Department markings to allow it to blend in. Casey got in the driver's seat while Sarah occupied the passenger seat. In the back, Chuck sat at a mobile computer with a secure satellite link to every database accessible by the NSA and Homeland Security.

After driving through a series of narrow tunnels, the ambulance emerged on the surface from underneath a flood control trench near the 101 Freeway. Casey docked his phone on a special device in the ambulance which allowed a faster download of the information on the Code 14 and its location. He activated the sirens and entered the 101, heading south to the 710.

_**710 Freeway, Los Angeles  
September 15, 2010  
10:40 AM**_

Roger was starting to run out of time. There were now 10 police cars chasing him, and every helicopter from both law enforcement and the media had its eyes on the Mustang convertible. This would be a very ugly escape, if there was to be one. He could only hope the extraction team would get him out of there before the police or the media asked too many questions. He maneuvered the car towards the far right lane and saw his opportunity 1 mile ahead. The shoulder dropped off onto an embankment 30 feet down. It would be a dangerous stunt to pull in a car like this, but he was out of options.

He waited until he was 500 feet from the start of the dropoff. He checked his seatbelt and pulled a lever underneath the driver's seat. The car started careening out of control, almost hitting another car in the lane to his left. The car skidded to the right at the perfect moment. It crashed through the metal barrier and rolled down the embankment. The car flipped over 5 times while falling down the hill, ending up at the bottom of the embankment on its side. Roger was knocked unconscious and was bleeding from his head and parts of his arm. He was incredibly fortunate that the car never made contact with the ground while it was upside-down. He would have been dead instantly on impact.

The police cars stopped along the shoulder, and one of the officers got on his radio to request an ambulance. Casey intercepted the message and responded. The helicopters circled overhead as a fire truck pulled up near the car. The firefighters carefully approached the vehicle and unbuckled Roger from the seat, pulling him gently out of the car and laying him down on the side of the road. The ambulance pulled up at the same time.

Casey carefully exited the ambulance and slipped behind the fire truck, emerging on the other side and acting as if he was there the whole time. Chuck and Sarah exited the front doors of the ambulance and immediately ran to the back doors. They opened the doors and pulled out a stretcher.

"Checking the vehicle, Chief!" Casey moved along the car near the hood. He checked to see if anybody was looking, and then he placed two small objects under the car by the engine. Chuck and Sarah approached the unconscious Roger, who was still bleeding from his forehead. Sarah immediately applied pressure to stop the bleeding while Chuck prepared the stretcher.

"OK, let's move him onto the stretcher." Sarah's voice took a commanding tone to the firefighters, who lifted Roger carefully and placed him on the stretcher. Chuck fastened the belts around Roger. Sarah and he extended the legs of the stretcher, wheeling him to the back of the ambulance. Casey slipped into the driver's seat of the ambulance undetected. He hit a button on the dashboard of the ambulance. One of the devices he placed under the car began to emit large amounts of smoke. One of the firefighters noticed.

"EVAC!" He shouted the warning to everybody as Chuck and Sarah quickly loaded Roger into the ambulance. Chuck followed the stretcher into the back while Sarah slammed the doors shut and bounded for the passenger seat. The ambulance peeled away from the scene. Chuck looked out the back windows to see the fire truck pull away to a safe distance.

"They're clear, Casey."

Casey hit another button on the dashboard. The Mustang exploded, sending flames and smoke shooting through the air. The fire department waited for a few minutes before moving back in to put the flames out.

Sarah joined Chuck in the back of the ambulance to examine the operative they pulled out of the car. Casey checked the police bands over the radio to see if there was any information about what happened.

"The police are interviewing a bunch of kids on a school bus that was pulled over 8 miles before the crash site. They said a man leaped onto the bus to get it under control because the driver was shot. Then he tried to evade police."

Sarah looked down at Roger. "He stopped to save a busload of kids? Wow. No wonder there were helicopters everyplace. This wasn't your typical police chase."

"Idiot." Casey shook his head in disbelief that an agent could be that stupid. Chuck looked at him with a wary gaze.

"What did you want him to do, Casey? Let the bus crash? That wouldn't make him look too good, would it?"

"I hate agents with a conscience."

Chuck rolled his eyes as he found Roger's wallet in his back pocket while Sarah carefully removed his shirt to check for any other injuries.

Chuck pulled out Roger's license from the wallet and started to laugh. "His name on the license is J. Traven." He looked at the unconscious Roger. "Were you able to keep the bus over 50 miles per hour? Is Dennis Hopper as creepy as he seems?"

Casey was even more annoyed. "Great. The CIA is employing stand-up comedians nowadays."

"Well, I'd like to think I can be quite the amusing one," Chuck modestly chimed in.

"I should have said FUNNY stand-up comedians."

Chuck sat at the computer in the back of the ambulance. He used a handheld scanner to check the information on the license against the databases at Homeland and the CIA.

"OK, here we go. His name is Roger Murdock. 6 feet tall, 225 pounds. Born March 15th, 1968, Kettering, Ohio. B.S. in Computer Science from Ohio State University, 1990, MBA from Bowling Green, 1994." He paused and stared at the screen. "Hmm. That's all there is."

"The MBA from Bowling Green means CIA. It's one of the degrees they use to make infiltrating companies easier. His mission profile must have been flagged confidential," Casey answered.

"No, there isn't even an indication of that. There is, literally, no other information on him. It's as if he wasn't even an agent. No training dates, no skills listed, nothing. That's weird."

Chuck moved to the other side of Roger from Sarah, who was checking his pupils to see if they react. She also checked his pulse.

"Pupils are normal. Pulse is 57. Respiration is normal. Aside from the hits on the head and arm, he's fine."

Chuck looked at Roger's face for the first time. He noticed the short-cropped black hair. He glanced down at the well-chiseled torso and was surprised.

"Holy cow. This guy is 225 pounds? He's built like a linebacker. What, does he play golf every week with Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds? He looks like he could get run over by a truck and the truck would lose."

Sarah continued to check for any other injuries. Chuck moved up and checked Roger's pupils again, looking intently at his royal blue eyes. Suddenly he flashed. He saw a football stadium and a college campus. It was almost one year ago that Chuck had this exact same flash. He staggered back in fear, almost falling through the rear doors of the ambulance. He had a look of utter fright. Sarah turned to him with a wide-eyed look of her own. Seeing Chuck like this raised the alarm in her voice.

"Chuck, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Chuck was visibly shaking. "Uh, actually…"

Sarah turned and looked at Roger again. She didn't notice anything at first. She then placed her hands on either side of his head. She felt something under her right hand. She took a light and a magnifying glass and examined the left side of Roger's head. It was hard to make them out through the black hair, but she saw a series of scars on the left side of Roger's scalp. She then checked Roger's left shoulder and arm. She notices a series of scars along the arm as well. The very same scars she saw one year ago. She had the same look of surprise on her face that Chuck did. She was shaking as well. Her voice was a whisper.

"Jimmy?"

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_Hope you like the start of the story. I'll try to update this on a weekly or bi-weekly basis while keeping the ChuckMeMondays Challenge going. Again, writers love to know what you think. That's what that review link is for. Take care!_


	2. Slade, James Slade

_I've been trying to shorten the chapters of this story. The next three chapters were originally only going to be one chapter. As it turns out, I could have split it up into four. I guess this is what happens when you work on a loose outline of your story. But I hope the Charah is good. :-)_

_As always, please leave feedback. A few kind words never hurt. Even unkind words don't hurt, although I admit they're not quite as nice as kind words. But hey, you took the time to read this; you can leave whatever words you want._

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**_710 Freeway, Los Angeles  
_****_September 15, 2010  
10:55 AM_**

Chuck and Sarah continued to stare at the unconscious man on the stretcher in shock. The same man, who died 11 months ago in an explosion while taking out a Ring facility to save them, was alive.

"What's going on? I thought he was dead." Casey glanced back from the driver's seat, still not believing Chuck's flash.

"Apparently, he got better. A lot better." Chuck couldn't get over how different Jimmy looked. "I have to say it: death REALLY agrees with him."

"Casey, the hospital," Sarah quickly spoke up. "Contact Devon."

Casey pulled his mobile phone off the adapter. "On it." He called Devon Woodcomb's mobile phone. "Devon, it's Casey. We have a security issue with the incoming patient. Everybody has to stay out of the examination room, including you. For your own protection. We'll bring our own doctor in." Casey hung up the phone and dials the NSA field office to send a physician to Westside Medical Center.

Sarah found a piece of paper in Jimmy's closed hand. She gently pried his fingers open and unfolded it.

"Why would this be in his hand?" She looked over the piece of paper. "There are two numbers written. One of the numbers is 213. The other looks like a Social Security Number."

"Let's see." Chuck examined the piece of paper. He typed the SSN into the computer. "That number isn't being used. Why would he write L.A.'s area code and a Social Security Number that doesn't exist?" Sarah shrugged.

Chuck looked at the piece of paper intently, and then he suddenly had a thought. "Wait. 776-24-3612. That number doesn't exist. But what if the 213 was the way to sequence the parts of the Social Security Number? Casey, does the number 24-776-3612 mean anything?"

"A GPS transponder code."

"Could that have been Jimmy's car?"

"No, that sequence is used for smaller items, like putting a tracker in a pen or a credit card."

"Jimmy must have been tracking that in his car when all hell broke loose," Sarah deduced. "Casey, can surveillance be set up on the location of that signal?"

"I'll call it in."

Chuck was shaking his head. If it wasn't for the flash, he would never believe the man lying down in front of him was Jimmy. It would not only appear that was Jimmy alive, he was on some sort of mission.

"What happened to him? How did the CIA even know about Jimmy? They didn't know where we were."

"The phone call," Casey replied as he finished relaying the transponder information to the local NSA office.

"What phone call?"

"After you took me outside and ran back in that day, Slade tossed me his phone…no wait, the NSA phone we gave him…and told me to call the fire department. They must have intercepted and pinpointed the location of the call.

"He said not to let anybody in the building because it wouldn't exist anymore." Casey shook his head. For whatever reason, he never put two and two together. "Slade always intended to blow up the building after getting us out. Beckman must have gotten them to retrieve Slade."

"My God." Sarah looked down at the unconscious Jimmy, not believing he thought that far ahead 11 months ago. "Beckman was going to put him into an underground bunker. She must have changed her mind when he decided to do that. But we never got a chance to warn him."

"I think he already knew," Chuck replied as the realization of what happened started to sink in. "He talked about it on the way back from dropping off my father. He never believed the CIA would let him become an agent or live his own life. When you two were kidnapped, he wanted to get you back as much as I did. But he also knew The Ring would never stop coming after us if they thought he was alive. He even said so while we were trying to get you out. It wasn't just a rescue. He wanted to make sure they never went after us again. And they haven't."

_**Westside Medical Center  
**__**September 15, 2010  
**__**11:10 AM**_

Per Devon's directions, the ambulance pulled up to a loading dock at the back of the hospital. Casey jumped out of the driver's seat and went up on the dock. He opened the rear doors of the ambulance. He reached in to grab the stretcher as Chuck and Sarah lifted and pushed it on their end to get the stretcher on the raised platform of the dock. They pulled the sheets on the stretcher up to cover Jimmy's face and obscure it from any onlookers as they entered a back hallway in the hospital. They wheeled the stretcher down a hallway and turned right, finding the examination room Devon prepared. As they brought the stretcher into the room, a 40-something woman wearing a doctor's lab coat approached them. She showed Casey her ID to verify she was from the doctor from the NSA. She accompanied Casey into the examination room. A police officer stood guard outside the room.

"Dr. Stravinsky, Agents Walker and Bartowski," Casey gave short introductions as Dr. Stravinsky walked over to the stretcher to examine Jimmy.

"What happened?" The doctor began to check the wounds that Sarah bandaged.

"Auto accident on the 710. His car flipped over an embankment."

Dr. Stravinsky checked Jimmy's eyes to see if they respond, and then she checked for any other damage. "Well, other than the cuts and possible head trauma, he looks to be in very good shape. He's lucky this is all he came away with in that accident," Dr. Stravinsky's non-committal assessment of Jimmy's condition was a contrast to the relief Chuck and Sarah were feeling. It was quickly interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Casey. Sarah. It's Devon. I think we might have a problem."

Sarah and Casey looked at each other. Sarah went to the door. "I'll meet you down the hall in a minute, Devon."

"You got it."

Sarah turned to Casey. "What the hell is he talking about?"

"We're fine in here as long as nobody tries to enter. Go find out what he wants."

Sarah quickly exited. Fortunately, two other police officers had cordoned off the hallway to keep anybody else away. She found Devon near the elevators and took him further down the hall, far away from everybody.

"What's going on?"

"Whoever you have, Sarah, all of you better get out of here quickly. Ellie is on her way. She wants to know what's going on. Every TV station has their helicopter over the hospital. Their reporters are probably about 15 or 20 minutes away."

"Dammit. How did they find out? We were careful in driving over here."

"You probably were. Maybe it was a process of elimination. They watched the hospitals and matched police chatter about who was in any ambulance that was arriving over the last half-hour. There was no communication over the radio regarding your ambulance, so they guessed this was the one."

Sarah thought for a moment. Since it sounded like Jimmy was OK, perhaps this wasn't as bad of a situation as they thought. 20 minutes might be enough. That is, if Devon could convince Ellie to go home before she saw any of them.

"OK, this was going to happen anyway. Contact the hospital spokesperson. Have them release a statement saying the person died from their injuries in the rollover accident, and the name cannot be released pending notification of their next of kin."

Sarah gave it one last thought before deciding that was the best course of action. The media never announced a name without the family knowing first. In the case of Jimmy, Chuck, Casey, and she were all he had for a family. Between the bus rescue and the spectacular crash, that should be more than enough of a story to satisfy television ratings.

"When Ellie arrives, tell her whatever you have to so that she goes home. Don't let her think for one second we're here. Once she leaves, we'll sneak the patient out."

"Got it."

"Thanks for your help, Devon."

"Anytime, Sarah. You know I got your back and little bro's. Must be one special person you're trying to protect in there."

A smile came across her face. "You have no idea how special."

Sarah turned and headed back to the examination room. Even though this would now be the second time someone she thought to be dead returned, it was still a situation that was almost impossible to comprehend. She had the benefit of hindsight now, but when Bryce returned from the dead, it caused a tremendous conflict within her. Not only could she not sort out the fact that Bryce was protecting Chuck instead of betraying her, there was still a part of her that was in love with Bryce while another part of her had developed feelings for Chuck. It took her a long time to come to peace with the decision to stay with Chuck instead of going with Bryce. In the end it was the right decision, but it caused her to question every aspect of her life and the choices she made.

Jimmy's return was much simpler but no less emotional. To say Jimmy was a unique individual was a gross understatement. Sarah never met anybody as skilled and courageous yet so oblivious to their talents. Even Chuck was happy to boast of his skills from time to time. But a look into Jimmy's past revealed he was never one to receive trust or praise; typically the opposite was true. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey learned to put their trust in him, and it saved their lives. The day of Jimmy's funeral was one of the worst days of Sarah's life. Every hurt she experienced in her life, the hurt of losing her mother, the hurt of her father leaving her, both of Bryce's funerals, every failed mission she encountered, and the hurt by every person she ever trusted and then left her came out that day. The irony was not lost on her that she spent all of that time keeping Chuck alive, and then he would do the same for her by a simple act of holding her tight and not letting her go. It was what she needed right then and there. Another person had left her, and this person did it so she and Chuck would live.

She shook her head clear, wondering why she thought about all of that. Too much time as a "glass is half-empty" type, she surmised. There was no point focusing on the past. The bottom line was Jimmy was still alive, and it would seem that their hopes for him, becoming an agent and changing his life, worked out far better than she could have imagined.

Sarah opened the door to the hospital room as Dr. Stravinsky finished her examination of Jimmy.

"If he complains of dizziness or ringing in his ears, contact me, and we'll arrange a CT scan for him. Otherwise, he should be just fine. He'll probably come around within an hour or two. Keep the activity to a minimum for 48 hours."

"Thanks, doc." Casey shook Dr. Stravinsky's hand, and the doctor departed.

"I hope he can come around sooner," Sarah said with concern as she relayed the information Awesome provided her. "There are TV helicopters all over the area, and we have maybe 15 minutes to get him out of here before reporters show up."

"15 minutes? That's not a lot of time," Chuck said as the worry in his voice rose. "We better start preparing how to sneak him out."

"Not yet. Ellie is on her way as well, and she can't see any of us here."

"Oh, good. I was afraid this wasn't complicated enough."

"We'll prepare for both instances." Casey began to formulate a strategy. "Once Ellie is gone, we'll bring him to the morgue in the basement in a body bag and go right past the cameras to sell the point he's dead. That might buy us some time. If he becomes conscious before Ellie is gone, perhaps we can slip him out some other way. Maybe steal some janitor's uniform. Hell, nobody should recognize him."

"OK, sounds like a plan. I just hope this didn't screw up whatever mission he was on."

"I'm sure the surveillance team can pick up whomever Jimmy was chasing and give us the information," Sarah replied. "But it does seem odd they would have someone with so little field experience on what looks like a fairly dangerous mission."

"I'm sure he knows the answer to that. I just hope he can tell us."

Behind them, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey heard the sheets rustling on the stretcher. They turned around, nervously staring at Jimmy. His head started to move back and forth. His eyes opened slowly. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and saw the three of them looking at him.

"Aaah, hell. Can I screw this up any worse?"

Chuck gaped at him. "Is..is it..?"

Jimmy's eyes went wide. His head darted back and forth. "Are there any…?" He mouthed the question and pointed to the room, wondering if there were any cameras or microphones

"No, no cameras or microphones," Chuck replied.

"Then, yes, it's me."

Chuck and Sarah continued to look at him in total shock. Jimmy suddenly bolted up on the stretcher. "Wait. That piece of paper I had?"

"We found it, don't worry," Sarah reassured him, gently pushing him back down on the stretcher. "There is a surveillance team being set up right now, and they're tracking the signal."

Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God for that. Maybe I can still salvage this debacle."

He noticed Chuck and Sarah ready to burst with questions, but neither seemed to know where to start.

"OK, just pick one question and go with it."

"Why aren't you dead?" Casey asked with all of the brutality the question intended.

"Apparently, I suck at it."

Chuck and Sarah stopped their evil glares at Casey and turned back to Jimmy. "But, what happened? How did you survive? Why do you look…well, different?" Chuck's mind was racing too quickly to formulate more thoughtful questions.

"I wish I knew. I thought I was dead. I wake up I don't know how many days or weeks later in what looked like a very fancy hospital room, and the first thing someone told me was to go back to bed. I was too weak to argue about it. I think I had about 10 different surgeries to repair practically everything on me, but I don't even know if that count is correct. I was hooked up to an IV until last January and couldn't eat solid food until March. Apparently blowing yourself up is a good way to lose weight. Although I'm guessing I won't make dime one off of the idea.

"After that, they started training me. I picked up on a lot of things quickly. Someone came up with the idea to have me take the final exams or exercises first, then adjust the training accordingly. We managed to shave 2 months of training off by doing that. I didn't need weapons training, apart from any specialized arms the average civilian never gets to see. I aced all of the mathematics, computer, and science-related exams, of course. History, psychology, and combat and survival courses took up most of the training time. They also had me doing some freelance computer work, since their regular guy left to join the private sector, and they couldn't get anybody up to speed faster. Then I had my cover job. I've been averaging 20-hour days since March. Although it wasn't all bad. I didn't have to do the cover job on Mondays and Tuesdays."

Sarah was surprised. "Wait. You've been training for only six months, and they sent you out into the field already?"

"Well, it's kind of a special case. I don't think General Beckman wanted to, but she didn't have a lot of options. For the last four weeks…"

"Hold on," Casey cut him off. "Save that for when we're back at Castle. First order of business is to sneak you out of here. There's media all over the place. And Ellie can't see any of us in here."

"Yikes, that woman is part bloodhound. How are we supposed to get past her?"

"Devon's ready to intercept her. Actually, let's see if he sent her on her way." Casey pulled out his mobile phone and called Devon. Their conversation was quick and muffled. "She already left."

"If she's gone, we can keep the original plan in place and put Jimmy in a body bag," Sarah noted.

"Geez, can't I enjoy being alive for a few minutes?" Jimmy had a trouble-causing smirk on his face. "If I knew you were going to do that, I would have just stayed dead."

"What I wouldn't give to help you with that right now," Casey snarled.

There was a knock at the door. Jimmy quickly ducked into the bathroom as Devon passed them a canvas body bag. Casey and Sarah laid it out on the stretcher. Chuck opened the bathroom door to let Jimmy back out. He got on the stretcher and placed himself inside the bag.

"OK, tap once if you need me to stop breathing and tap twice when I can again. And if Chuck quotes _The Karate Kid_, smack him for me."

Sarah suppressed a giggle. She had seen that movie and had to smack Chuck once or twice already when he and Morgan got a little too animated playing videogames while she was writing reports.

"I may do that whether or not he mentions the body bag."

"Whatever makes you happy."

Jimmy put his hands at his sides and remained rigid inside the bag. Sarah zipped it closed, and Casey attached the belts. Chuck and Sarah wheeled the stretcher towards the elevators. 10 feet down, a dozen photographers and video crews were taking pictures. Sarah quietly tapped Jimmy, who held his breath. They got around a corner where Casey already had the elevator open. The doors closed, and Sarah tapped Jimmy twice to let him breathe again. They headed to the basement, since the media would expect a corpse to be taken there. They wheeled him inside and locked the door behind them. Sarah unzipped the bag, and Chuck helped Jimmy out of it.

"How long before we can leave?" Jimmy asked.

"Just have to wait for the media to take off," replied Casey. "We have a car on its way."

"Wait." Chuck recalled something Jimmy said earlier. "You said you also had a cover job? What were you doing?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes and hung his head. He was turning beet red with embarrassment. "Do I have to tell you?"

Chuck's eyes went wide with amusement. "Oh, you have to. This sounds too good. What was it?" Jimmy didn't respond apart from shaking his head and turning redder. Chuck fashioned a German accent. "Do not be foolish. Ve have vays oof makin' you tahk."

Jimmy looked to Sarah for some sympathy but got none. He dug into his wallet and found a picture. He handed it to Chuck. Chuck and Sarah stared at it. The picture was of a Las Vegas show with a half-dozen performers made to look like legendary singers.

"No…" Chuck's eyes went wide and the grin on his face threatened to wrap completely around his head.

"Yeah…" Jimmy started to gaze at the body bag again, thinking how comfortable it looked all of a sudden.

"You were in a musical revue as Elvis?" Chuck and Sarah doubled-over laughing. Jimmy lay back on the stretcher, wanting to disappear.

"Wow. That Wienerlicious cover doesn't seem so bad anymore." Sarah was tearing up from laughing so hard.

Jimmy looked up to see Casey with a smirk on his face. Jimmy was incredulous. "Et tu, Casey? Thanks a frickin' lot! I got booed off the stage the first week! I only knew 5 or 6 Elvis songs, and I wasn't given any time to rehearse."

"Easy, Jimmy, easy. Relax," Chuck calmed him. "I mean, you're all shook up." He laughed even harder. Sarah finally calmed down.

"Oh, Chuck, come on. That is so mean. Don't be cruel." He fell to the floor laughing hysterically while she hung on to the stretcher to prevent her from doing the same thing. Jimmy turned to Casey and suddenly had a newfound sympathy for him.

"So this is what you get to deal with on a daily basis? No wonder you're grumpy."

Not for the first time since being in Burbank, Casey was relieved that the phone interrupted them. He answered it and acknowledged the message. "The car is here, and all the reporters left. The hospital released the statement and didn't take questions. We can leave now."

As they left, Jimmy wished quietly that he had reunited with Chuck, Sarah, and Casey under much different circumstances. Watching the two of them laughing their heads off as they left certainly cemented that hope.

_**Castle Underground Facility  
**__**September 15, 2010  
**__**2:00 PM**_

"So why did General Beckman send you out into the field?"

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy were gathered around the main table in Castle. They had checked on the status of the surveillance team, who reported that Alexander was in a rundown motel near the airport. They were able to intercept the signal on the cell phone and room phone, so any conversation Alexander had would be recorded. It was now a matter of waiting and listening.

Jimmy wasn't sure how much of the story he should tell. He was afraid of making a bad situation worse. But there were only three people in the entire world he trusted, and they were sitting in front of him right now. They also pulled him out of that bad situation and kept this mission going. They deserved to know.

"About four weeks ago, I came across several files that needed decoding from an IP address that nobody recognized. The encryption was a 1,024 bit cipher, which meant it had to be pretty important. I got to work on it. I got about 50% of it cracked, but I've been having trouble ever since. Unfortunately, being a few years behind on computer programming was the least of my troubles.

"It turns out I had my hands on a series of bank accounts from several institutions in Europe, Asia, a couple in the Caymans, and the odd one here and there. In total, the accounts I had totaled over $2 billion. And these weren't exactly the types of accounts that the average greedy American businessperson worries about."

"Terrorist funds?" Sarah asked.

"That was my guess, but what I don't have are the names or groups to attach to the accounts. That's the part that still needs decrypting. I'm sure you can imagine what value they would have, other than the obvious fact that $2 billion is a nice chunk of change."

The three sat back in their chairs. Jimmy pulled quite a first assignment. "There's probably a few hundred organizations that would like to get their hands on those accounts for the sake of sponsoring activities," Sarah replied.

"Hell, half the governments in the world would love to bump you off and take credit for finding the money," Casey contemplated. "The funds are probably worth 100 times that in political capital. Enough to get you elected or keep you in office."

"Very true, and very true," Jimmy replied. "I contacted Beckman because I was suspicious someone might have been trying to make a move on the files from inside of Nellis Air Force Base, so she had me set up a little sting operation. I just didn't think it would actually work. I kept a memory stick in the computer while I was working on the encryption, and then I put it away in my desk every night. Of course, this one had a GPS tracker in it. Sure enough, one of the maintenance crew took it, and I traced it out here to L.A. I was to work completely alone on this to keep the temptation down of others knowing about the $2 billion. Unfortunately, my training seemed to go right out the window the minute I set foot in this town. Stupid bastard had me caught within five minutes. I somehow managed to get away, and well, you know the rest of it."

"You have to quit blaming yourself for this." Chuck was starting to see some of the old Jimmy seep through the new frame. "She sends you out there half-trained and expects you to hit a home run on the first pitch? That's too much for anybody to ask."

"I was too hung up on following orders and resolving this by myself. The first thing I should have done when I hit town was walk into Zork or the Orange Orange. It certainly wasn't what I wanted, just burst in to say 'oh, by the way, I'm still alive'. Obviously I pooched that one anyway."

Jimmy shook his head, disgusted with himself. "Look, I'll just get the surveillance information once it comes in and get back on the case. You guys have done more than your fair share on this. I still have a shot at catching this prick, thanks to all of you. But I'm supposed to be doing this alone. I'm in enough trouble as it is, and I don't want to drag you down with me."

That pronouncement was met with angry stares by Chuck, Sarah, and even Casey.

"No, that is not happening," Sarah answered with a stern rebuke. "We're not leaving you out there alone. This never should have been a one-man operation, and they certainly shouldn't have put it all on your shoulders with so little training. We're helping you, whether you like it or not."

Jimmy was ready to argue the point, but he could see from the looks in their faces that it would be pointless. He gave a slight smile. "I better get used to the fact someone actually gives a rat's ass about me?"

"Damn right."

Even though he only knew them for two weeks a year ago, he knew enough not to argue with either Sarah or Casey. The look on Chuck's face indicated that Jimmy wouldn't win the argument against him, either.

_**Castle Underground Facility  
**__**September 15, 2010  
**__**8:30 PM**_

The rest of the day passed without incident. Alexander never made any calls or left the motel. The surveillance team would contact Casey the second they had any information. In the meantime, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey continued with their cover assignments. Chuck had to go to one of his customer sites to handle an issue with two of the computers, and Sarah had to deal with a city inspector checking on the Orange Orange. Jimmy spent the day alone in Castle, alternating between writing up reports regarding the mission thus far and reading various online newspapers or fooling around on other websites.

It was odd how this was the most time he had alone in the last 6 months. It felt weird to actually miss that time to himself, given how many years he spent completely alone. He couldn't even comprehend how much had happened between the first day of training back in March and now. He was always doing something, and it was rare that he got even 30 minutes of free time in a day. Most days were spent getting up at 5 AM and taking a two-mile run before standard physical training. Granted, that run started as a quarter-mile struggle to walk, but he eventually worked his way up to a full run. It ended with a half-mile swim in the pool in the Phys. Ed. building at Nellis around midnight every night before getting to bed at 1 AM. On Mondays and Tuesdays, when the show was dark, the swim would be around 10 PM and he'd try to get two extra hours of sleep.

It still took a lot of convincing to make him realize he was much thinner, far more physically fit, and even younger-looking. Perhaps it was a case of being too immersed in it to have an unvarnished opinion. He did have to admit that the two-mile run every morning got easier and easier as time went by; he had been contemplating stretching it to a three-mile run lately. However, cracking the encryption of these accounts started to occupy more and more of his time. Physically, that was better than all the kicks and punches he took to the face and body for the three months of martial-arts training he endured. 8 hours a day he spent working on that. From 8 in the morning until noon, and again from 2 until 6, he practiced and practiced until he got it right. It certainly didn't come naturally to him, but some of the instructors started nicknaming him "Rocky" because he was always able to take a punch and keep coming back for more, much like the movie icon. Eventually, he became quite skilled at the many different disciplines. He wasn't sure how skilled he was, but his performance earlier that day against those 6 thugs would indicate he wasn't half bad.

He was preparing one of the bunks in the holding cells to sleep in when he heard a knock. Chuck was behind him and looked a little frazzled.

"Hey there. Apparently your cover job involves just as much work and fewer panties being thrown at you."

Chuck had to laugh. "It has its moments. One of our customers was not 100% thrilled with the setup today. Of course, spilling an orange juice inside the computer tends to make it malfunction on occasion."

"Ouch. There's another two grand out of the public trough. But if it makes you feel better, I'm still ahead of you. I cost the taxpayers a pretty nice car today. Leather seats, satellite radio, all the little goodies that 23-year-old techie threw in there. I certainly had a banner day."

Chuck looked down with guilt. "Yeah, we shouldn't have teased you like we did. We were kicking you when you were down…"

"Oh, don't even sweat that. It's kind of funny when you think about it. They actually bought me three different costumes over the 5 months I was in that show because I kept losing weight. They were $15,000 apiece. But at least my singing improved, so it wasn't a complete waste of the taxpayers' money, right?"

"So what have you been doing while I was fixing a computer's addiction to vitamin C?"

"The local newspaper and TV station websites have the car crash and the bus all over the news. They're trying to make up some BS about me causing the bus to go out of control in the first place, which isn't all that far from the truth, really. Son of a bitch just kept firing at me and hit that pothole. I must be the only person in the world who can pull a rescue like that and still think I made a bad decision."

"Yeah, but that's you. It's pretty ironic you're as smart as you are and yet still seem to think with your guts first. All balls and no brains."

"That's me alright. To be fair, I may not have tried it a year ago. I seriously doubt I could have made that leap from the car to the bus with all that weight."

"I'm curious: exactly how much weight did you lose?"

"The doctor two weeks ago said my count was 180 pounds lost. I could have lost even more, but with all of the training and exercise, I was starting to pack muscle onto my frame. I actually dropped a third of that weight while in the hospital being operated on all the time and living on IVs. The rest came off the old-fashioned way."

Chuck let out a low whistle. "That is amazing. I knew you had it in you, but even this is a shock."

Jimmy was quiet a moment. His voice was much softer. "Well, I couldn't let you, Sarah, and Casey down."

"What are you talking about?"

Jimmy hesitated for a moment. "Beckman said the reason they pulled me out of there was that you and I helped them pull the fangs out of The Ring with all that information we discovered. She also said how you three tried to convince her I could be an agent. Nobody has ever done anything like that for me in my life. I…I didn't want to disappoint all of you."

Chuck sat down next to him. "You realize that's impossible, right? Disappointing us? You never have and you never will. You certainly earned your way through the last year. You look like a completely different person. I wouldn't have believed it was you if I didn't have that flash in the ambulance."

"Yeah, but I've been screwing this up since getting out here. Helluva way to start my new career."

"Please. You haven't screwed anything up. I don't think you've screwed up. I doubt Sarah thinks you screwed up."

"Casey thinks I screwed up."

"Casey IS a screw-up."

Jimmy smiled. "Good point."

"You know, for all that has changed on the outside, there's still too much of the old you on the inside. The guy who was kind and forgiving to everybody but himself. I don't have a lot of experience as an agent; only a year and change officially. But you gotta figure out how to learn from your mistakes and move forward instead of browbeating yourself over and over again. You'll do much better."

"Not the easiest task in the world, I have to admit."

"I know. I've done it myself. I've lent Sarah an ear when she needed to get a bad mission off her mind. By the way, you were completely right."

"About what?"

"You said what she needed most in the world was a hug. You said she needed to let go of her emotions. And it happened. I held her for a long time after your funeral when she needed someone."

"What?" Jimmy was horrified. He buried his face in his hands. "Oh, God. I didn't want that to be the reason why. I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt either of you. I feel like a complete jerk."

"No, Jimmy. You were right. It took us a long time to recover from that, but we got through it together. We ended up closer than we ever were."

Jimmy turned and gave Chuck an odd glance. "You actually grew closer? The only way you two could be closer is to be surgically attached to each other."

Chuck gave a slight laugh. "OK, maybe you're right. But our relationship became much stronger. We trusted each other even more. And of course, there was the extra added bonus that we were still alive because of what you did. Even better, you're still alive."

Jimmy stayed silent but nodded his head in acknowledgment of Chuck.

"You'll be OK here, right? This is probably the best place for you without Ellie walking into our apartment unexpected. That's a conversation I don't want to have."

"Yeah, no problem. It'll be nice to get a full night of sleep for once."

Chuck gave him a big hug. "I can't tell you how good it is to see you again. I'm just glad it wasn't too long or even never."

"It's good to see you too, Chuck. Thanks for all of your help today. I needed it."

"Always glad to help. We'll get here early in the morning. Get some rest."

"Will do, boss," Jimmy said with a smile.

Chuck exited and headed for his car.

_**Echo Park  
**__**September 15, 2010  
**__**11:00 PM**_

Chuck finished brushing his teeth and entered the bedroom. Sarah was lying on the bed in her robe. She was reading a novel that she started a long time ago, but missions lately had pushed reading it back on the priority list. The CIA took Chuck, Sarah, and Casey off the active list for 2 weeks following Jimmy's death…or what they originally assumed was his death. Since then, they slowly worked themselves back to a normal routine. However, normal was a bit of a relative term, since the work Chuck and Jimmy did in finding the Ring facilities throughout the country weakened that organization. Scores of agents were able to escape the raids conducted on the Ring facilities in New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago. However, a well-coordinated raid on the storage facilities in Nebraska landed enough weapons and equipment to arm a small country. Many of the Ring's overseas contacts were cut off as a result of the raid. It had only been within the last 4 months that The Ring started making waves again. So far, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey had only been involved in two operations involving The Ring, and both of those were coordinated efforts with the NSA. They were never singled out for attack.

Chuck sat on the bed by Sarah, who decided to give up on the novel again. She bookmarked the page and put it away. Chuck looked at her, never tiring of gazing into those sparkling eyes.

"Sorry I took so long. The problem with our client went into overtime, and then I went to check on Jimmy."

"Uh-uh," Sarah said playfully. "No excuses. You know the punishment."

"Yeah, I know."

She placed her feet in his lap, and he started to massage them. She lay back on the bed, enjoying Chuck's handiwork.

"Is he OK?"

"He's fine. He's still mad at himself. I swear, he could disarm a nuclear bomb with three seconds to spare and want to kill himself for not disarming it with four seconds to spare."

"I know. But nobody can tell him not to be so critical of himself. He has to learn it on his own. Everybody does. I had to, and it took a long time."

Chuck turned to her with a bemused expression. "You're expecting me to believe that?"

"Yes. I'm not perfect, Chuck. I'm far from it."

"You're a lot closer than most of the people in this world."

Sarah smiled and slid down so she was sitting on Chuck's lap. She wrapped her arms around him. "Well, I don't mean to boast, but I did finally master the art of having good taste in men." She held his face in her hands and gave him a passionate kiss.

"OK, true. There is that." Chuck had a smile on his face as his hands gently caressed Sarah's face while returning her kiss.

She grabbed the back of his head with her hand as her kisses increased in intensity, her tongue darting around inside of his mouth, teasing him. She took his other hand and slid it inside her robe. Chuck was most pleased with what he discovered.

"You're not wearing anything under that robe."

"I know." Her sapphire eyes bore into his with an uncaged passion. As she planted heated kisses along his neck, she could feel his hand slide downward. Her breathing grew shallow and faster as her eyes closed in pleasure.

"And that's why," she moaned as she pushed him down on the bed, desperate to take his clothes off.

_**Echo Park  
**__**September 16, 2010  
**__**7:30 AM**_

That damn phone.

Given that Sarah was still lying on top of Chuck, their bodies pressed against each other, the phone was the last thing she wanted to hear. Unfortunately, this job didn't lend itself to convenience. She reached over to grab it. She noticed Casey's ID.

"What is it?"

"We have Slade's information. The meeting is at 1 PM today."

"Where?"

"Let's just say you'll need a good pair of stilettos."

Sarah hung up the phone. This had the makings of a bad day. She set the alarm on the clock for 9:00 AM and pressed her body into Chuck's. If the rest of the day would be bad, she wanted to enjoy where she was right now for as long as she could.


	3. Size 16 Stilettos With a 9 mm Heel

_Hope you are enjoying the story thus far. I threw in a little extra Charah since people have been so nice. I swear, I'm trying to keep the chapter sizes down, but it's not as easy as I realize. I'm actually moving some parts forward a chapter to even them out. (I hope.)_

_As always, feedback is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. Geez, am I quoting "The Shawshank Redemption" now?_

_**

* * *

Castle Underground Facility  
**__**September 16, 2010  
**__**7:45 AM**_

Casey descended the stairs into Castle from Zork Computer Consultants. The surveillance team contacted him regarding the phone call Alexander made during the night for a rendezvous today at 1PM. After contacting Sarah, he arrived at Castle to alert Jimmy of the news and get to work on preparing for the meeting. Passing by one of the holding cells, he noticed the cot Jimmy used the prior night. It appeared Jimmy was still asleep. Casey got a smirk on his face and walked over to one of the computers. He programmed the facility's sirens to go off, disabling the communications system just so the NSA didn't think they were actually under attack. He quickly walked over to the cot to catch Jimmy as sirens blared and strobe lights went off throughout the facility. The cot remained still. Casey walked toward the cot, wondering what was going on.

"Morning, Casey."

"Aaah!" Casey was startled and turned around to find Jimmy standing behind him. He was already dressed and was holding a cup of coffee.

"I gather this is a practical joke you try to pull on people. Gee, you really got me. That was a good one," Jimmy deadpanned.

"You were so much easier to deal with when you were fat and angry," Casey growled.

"You already forgot about my 20 hour days. Today I feel like I overslept. I gather you being here means there is some information on Alexander?"

"The meet is for 1PM today. Bambi's Gentlemen's Club, near the airport."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "I take it they're not interested in meeting Thumper or Flower or Chipmunk. Why can't these scumbags just meet in a damn café or a McDonalds?"

"Just keep your hands out of any g-strings while we're there. I know what the sight of any woman wearing less than a parka would do to you."

Jimmy shook his head. "Things certainly haven't changed around here. I'll get working on the building's stats."

Jimmy walked over to one of the computer to do his research. Certainly he was glad to see everybody again…even Casey. But the thought of dragging them into his assignment was not something he planned for or wanted. Even though Sarah was right, that this was too big of a mission to entrust to someone who wasn't even experienced enough to be considered a rookie, a significant part of him was still the old Jimmy. He was too used to doing things on his own. Perhaps it was about being able to trust people. With the short timetable they had for training him, they never really had someone talk to Jimmy about his past or how to learn to rely on others.

He shook his head clear. There wasn't much point to worry about such things. He was becoming too concerned about making sure everything went correctly when he spent enough time with the three of them to know that never happened. Hell, if things went right, he never would have jumped on a stage singing The Knack or leap on to a speeding van. None of those things were planned. It should have been obvious to him by now that planning was a bit overrated.

_**Echo Park  
**__**September 16, 2010  
**__**8:00 AM**_

Chuck slowly stirred in the bed. He could feel Sarah still on top of him, her breathing pattern making for a peaceful sound. As much as he wanted to stay in this position all day…if not the rest of his life…that little sense of duty and responsibility she and Casey instilled him was starting to call. More than likely, they had a mission of some sort today, and they knew nothing about it. He slowly started to move, gently sliding Sarah so not to disturb her. Her hand, which was moving along his chest of its own accord, suddenly stopped and pressed down.

"Move one inch and you're a dead man, Bartowski."

He smiled. She caught him. Admittedly, he didn't stand a chance not to disturb her. It's very difficult to slip out from under someone when they have their entire body pressed into you and want to keep it that way.

"Mmmm, I have to get out of bed eventually."

Her hand slid down between them. "There are parts of you that strongly disagree."

"Well, I thought guys weren't supposed to spend too much time thinking with that."

She smiled, kissing her way up his chest to his face. She kissed him on the lips, allowing them to linger for more than a few seconds. "We have an understanding," she replied with a devilish glance.

"I suppose I could cook us breakfast to make up for your pillow getting out of bed."

Her eyes lit up. "Oooh, even better!" She gave him a quick, hard kiss. "Get going!" She quickly got off of him. He rolled his eyes and smiled, wondering how she was able to dupe him into cooking breakfast. She bolted into the shower.

He walked into the kitchen and started pulling out some pans and bowls for making pancakes. He was starting to find cooking an adequate substitute for videogames, especially since having Morgan over a few too many times for Sarah's liking was something he needed to correct. He had gotten quite good over the last few months. The TiVo in the bedroom was full of Food Network shows that he studied during his off-hours. He perfected his Carne Asada recipe over many months, often using Morgan as a guinea pig, since he didn't want Sarah to suffer with one of his failed experiments. Lately he had been working on a Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe he found on a world cuisine-style show. By comparison, making pancakes, even from scratch, wouldn't require much effort. Still, Sarah never turned down his offers to make them any meal.

A few minutes later, Sarah walked into the kitchen and pulled two plates out of the cupboard, placing them on the table. She also added silverware to the settings as the first set of pancakes was ready to go.

"Plate, Madame?" Chuck had three pancakes ready on the spatula as Sarah reached for a plate. She looked very impressed as Chuck gracefully slid the pancakes on to the plate she was holding.

"These look phenomenal, sweetie." She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek as she placed the plate on the table and located the syrup.

"Ah, you know I've been working on my craft just for you."

From behind, she wrapped her arms around him. "And I appreciate that."

"Did Casey leave a message or an email?"

"He called about 45 minutes ago. The meeting is going to be at 1PM. You might not like where, though."

Chuck turned his head from the stove, curious. "Where?"

"Judging by the fact he said I need a good pair of stilettos, I would say either a strip club or a hotel that charges hourly rates."

"Ah." Chuck tried to hide his feelings for Sarah being in either one of those situations, but she was already ahead of him.

"Are you concerned for my safety or are you concerned that the mission may require me to do things you wouldn't like as my boyfriend?"

He turned to face her. His eyes had that boyish charm in them she fell in love with. "Which answer will get me in less trouble?"

_Damn him_, she thought with a bit of an inward smile. He had to be the only person who can give that answer and get away with it. She knew he was concerned for both reasons, but he knew that as well and wasn't going to put his foot in his mouth.

"You know I can take care of myself. Besides, I have the three of you covering me. I can't be in a safer situation."

He smiled. "That's true. Besides, we need to know who wants those accounts, so we have to do whatever it takes." He raised his eyebrows. "Although I do wonder what will happen the first time I have to be sent in to seduce someone."

Sarah put her arms around him and held him tight. "Well, I pity the poor girl who won't know what hit her." She started kissing him hard, pressing up against him.

"Mmmm, I think I'm on fire," Chuck said.

"Oh, you have no idea how much, baby," Sarah moaned into his mouth, not bothering to interrupt her kiss.

Chuck leaped forward with Sarah still in his arms. "Ouch! Damn. I really was on fire!" He quickly turned off the stove and patted the back of his robe. She suddenly realized what he meant and turned him around to see the damage. Fortunately, only his robe was ruined. She started to laugh.

"I'm sorry, baby." Sarah tried to be apologetic, but the whole situation was just too funny. "Why don't you get a shower. I'll eat the burned pancakes."

Chuck gave her a playful snarl and kissed her as he headed off to the shower. "Next meal, you're doing the cooking!" She had to smile; she deserved that.

_**Castle Underground Facility  
**__**September 16, 2010  
**__**9:15 AM**_

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy were gathered around the table. There was a schematic of Bambi's club on the LCD screen. Jimmy went over the information.

"There are two main entrances for customers to the club, both of which have bouncers stationed there. There are two other entrances in the back: one for the dancers which allows them quick access to their dressing rooms, one for the other employees near the manager's office. There are four fire exits with the standard alarm on them that will ring if they open them."

"What about security cameras?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing special. 20 cameras, 8 exterior and 12 interior. They're wired into a server on the premises, which in turn sends the feed to a security company. A 13-year-old could hack the system, and I'm sure a few of them have."

Casey continued the briefing. "The Thursday crowd usually thins out around 1:00 and then picks up again at 3:30 when the first-shift workers end their day. There are 15-20 dancers and 5 bouncers typically working at that time of day, along with 3 waitresses, the DJ and the cashier taking the cover charge. Nobody that should pose a major problem. They should have waitress uniforms in the dressing room there for you, Walker. The bouncers wear the standard black t-shirt and jeans, so I should be all set."

Jimmy noticed Chuck's look of concern. "Chuck, Sarah's the only one who can get close to them without raising suspicion. I certainly can't go in, and Casey can't stand over their shoulders every second. They'd have a fit. She needs to plant the bug near their table. It's not like she's going in there as a dancer. None of us want to see that."

"Hey…" Sarah shot him a dirty look.

"You know what I mean." Jimmy shot her an even dirtier look back . He then continued. "Chuck, you'll have to get one of the other waitresses out of there so Sarah can take her place. I dug in and found some info on one of the ladies. It shouldn't be much of a problem getting her out of there and Sarah in. I'll help you hack the security system, and then we should be able to listen in and identify anybody Alexander is meeting."

"What should I do to get the other waitress out of there?"

"That depends. How good is your vice-principal voice?"

_**Bambi's  
**__**September 16, 2010  
**__**11:15 AM**_

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy were driving towards the club. It felt a little unusual for Chuck to be driving the surveillance van. He was accustomed to sitting in the back. However, the other three would have to be dropped off, and he could not park the van in the lot of the club without arousing suspicion. Jimmy was sitting next to him in the passenger seat, readying a bag of electronic surveillance equipment to help hack the club's camera system. Sarah and Casey were in the back, prepared to exit and assume their roles in the club.

"OK, Chuck. As soon as you drop us off, make the call immediately," Sarah said. "We have to make sure the waitress gets in trouble before she enters for work."

"Got it," he replied.

Chuck looked over at Jimmy. For someone who claimed yesterday he was making mistake after mistake on this mission, he certainly didn't act like it. Jimmy had a very professional look on his face, as if he had been doing this job for some time. He could have been nervous, Chuck theorized, but there was certainly less on the line than the last time he was on a mission with Jimmy, and he wasn't nervous then, either. At least not on the surface.

"By the way, should we call you Roger, since that's your ID now?"

Jimmy turned to them and smiled. "Actually, I think I prefer Jimmy. At least from you three. Probably the only time in my life that I didn't want to be someone else was those two weeks I met you. Of course, it'd help if you called me Roger in front of others. Otherwise, that would get weird in a hurry."

"Who should take credit for the new name?" Sarah asked.

"I guess General Beckman. Don't ask me how she came up with that."

"But Roger Murdock?" Chuck asked, trying not to crack up. "Roger Murdock? Surely, you can't be serious."

"I am serious. And don't…"

"…EVEN THINK ABOUT IT," Casey growled.

Sarah shook her head. "I knew that was only a matter of time."

"The part I can't understand is making me two years older. What was wrong with my birthday as it was?"

"They do that on every ID to insure nobody can trace any prior aliases. You have to change all of the information so that no pattern emerges."

"Well, I had to correct them. They made me two years older but were going to keep the date the same. Having a birthday the same day as Martin Luther King's assassination would lead to a few awkward conversations, wouldn't it? I guess I look Irish enough to get away with a birthday near St. Patrick's Day."

"How much training do you have left?" Chuck asked him.

"Obviously I need a refresher course in not getting caught, given what happened yesterday. Aside from that, a couple of rescue simulation courses, basic flight training, and I have to go out on a few social situations."

"A few social situations?"

"Well, it's not like I can't tell the difference between a soup spoon and a dessert spoon. But I've never been to anything formal. I've never worn a tuxedo in my life."

Chuck noticed Jimmy's words were becoming more measured and cautious. "Wait. Didn't they send anybody out to train you?"

"They were supposed to send someone out, some famous ex-agent to train me, but things got mixed up, or he missed his flight. I never got a straight answer."

Chuck and Sarah couldn't help but smile.

"You mean you've never had any practice in…" Chuck couldn't finish the sentence before cracking up. Jimmy leaned his head against the side of the van, completely embarrassed.

"Oh, leave me alone, will you?"

"Don't women do that to you enough already?" Chuck was laughing hysterically and even Sarah couldn't hold it in.

"I've literally never been this happy," Casey said with a straight face.

"Sheesh, this is my first mission. There was bound to be plenty of virgin territory."

"Yeah, but that virgin territory wasn't suppose to include you," Casey retorted with a joyful smirk on his face. Jimmy grew redder in the passenger seat. Sarah put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Jimmy, don't worry. If it really comes down to that, I'll teach you everything you need to know."

That didn't help. Jimmy started banging his head against the side of the van. "Gee, thanks Sarah. I was just thinking this conversation wasn't awkward enough." Sarah put her hands up, wondering what she said wrong.

"Just, just let it go Sarah," Chuck replied from the driver's seat. "You're shading into late-night Cinemax territory now."

Jimmy was starting to long for the days of being overweight and alone again. "I will never forgive Beckman for pulling me out of that building."

The van pulled by the nightclub. Sarah and Casey exited and headed for the employees' entrance in the rear of the club. Jimmy slipped out around the side, with the bag of equipment slung around his shoulder. In the van, Chuck placed a call to the mobile phone of one of the waitresses.

"Miss Dubrow? This is Mr. Vargas at your son's school. I'm afraid we're having a few problems today with Jeremy. We need you to come pick him up. We attempted to contact his father without success."

One of the waitresses, Jasmine, had a look of panic and anger on her face. "OK, Mr. Vargas. I'll be right there." She ran for her car.

Sarah and Casey blended into the small group of people entering in the back. One of the managers stopped Sarah.

"Who are you?"

Sarah pretended to be very annoyed. "Cassie. Dale the night manager told me to show up this morning because you needed help. I hope he wasn't lying to me. I'm working on 4 hours of sleep right now."

"Where's Jasmine?"

"Someone just left. Something about her kid?"

"Then I just got lucky. Clock in." Sarah walked right past him into the club.

On the other end of the club, Jimmy hid behind a group of trees. He took a small electronic device and tossed it near one of the cameras, which interrupted its signal. He threw a similar device at a second camera. Once the cameras were blinded, he climbed up the tree and jumped over to the roof of the club. Crawling to the back of the roof, he found the network access point to the cameras. He attached a wireless transmitter to the system. In a parking lot next to an abandoned store, Chuck parked the van and entered the back, turning on the computer equipment. He picked up the feed from the club on all of the monitors.

"We have a good feed, Jimmy."

"Got it. Heading your way."

Sarah emerged from the dressing room in a white Oxford shirt tied at the navel and a skirt that would have made a miniskirt look like a costume from the Victorian era. The 4 inch-high stilettos she brought completed the outfit and allowed her to blend in with the other cocktail waitresses. Casey emerged from near the office and took a location behind the stage where he could observe the entire club without drawing attention to himself. The DJ started playing the music loudly as a few customers trickled in.

Jimmy knocked on the van, and Chuck let him in. They sat at the monitors and observed the club. There were several men in business suits in the club taking lunch, along with a few others who looked like they frequented the club. So far, neither of them recognized nor flashed on anyone in the club.

Jimmy noticed a car pull up to the club. He spotted his target. "There's Alexander." He checked his watch. It's was 12:55. "We should have his contact in 5 minutes. Sarah, Casey, Alexander is coming in. 6'1", brown hair, hazel eyes, and he's wearing a blue shirt with navy slacks."

Sarah walked around toward the front of the club. She spotted Alexander entering. "Got him." She walked back to the table to finish serving several drinks. Casey kept watch as Alexander took a seat. Two minutes later, a group of four businessmen entered the club as well, making a racket as they did so.

A Lincoln Continental pulled up to the front door of the club. The door opened, and a man in a four-button suit entered the club. Even though he was clearly overdressed for the location, he entered the club without being questioned. In fact, everybody at the door seemed to give him the VIP treatment.

As the man entered the club, Chuck got a clear shot of him on one of the monitors. He flashed, seeing images of a raven and a dress parade for a battalion of troops.

"Alexander's contact is Miroslav Davydov, the number three man in the Kolinova crime family. He's tied in with the usual: drugs, weapons, slave trade. He's their pit bull. Very smart and very dangerous."

"Understood, Chuck," Sarah kept an eye on Davydov as he spotted Alexander at a table. He walked over to Alexander, giving him a hug. The two sat down at the table.

"Why the hell would a maintenance person at Nellis be in contact with someone so high up in a Russian crime family?" Jimmy was having difficulty making the connection.

"I don't know," Chuck replied. "But there is definitely more going on here than just someone trying to steal a memory stick."

Inside the club, Sarah and Casey had a quick conference. Casey would run interference while Sarah planted the bug. She walked up to Alexander and Davydov and took their drink orders. She bent over close to them to show off some cleavage and let her skirt ride up near the men at the table next to them. Casey immediately walked up to the nearby table.

"Hey! Watch the grab-assing, sir! You want a dance, you pay for it from one of the dancers. Otherwise you keep your hands off the servers!"

"But I didn't…"

"You want to see the security tape? I can show it to you and then have your ass hauled out of here!"

Alexander and Davydov turned to their left, startled by the exchange. Sarah slipped a transmitter under the table while their heads were turned.

"Sorry, Cassie," Casey replied to Sarah. "Let me know if they give you any trouble."

"Thanks, Vic." Sarah pretended to be grateful for the "rescue." Both of them walked away, and Chuck adjusted the sound inside the van to filter out as much of the background music as possible. They could hear the conversation, albeit barely.

"Что он работал дальше?" Davydov asked.

"Эти миллионы стоимости счетов в банк, Miroslav!" was Alexander's reply.

"OK, I kind of forgot to mention something," Jimmy confessed. "So far, I know Spanish, French, and a little bit of Arabic. Can anybody speak Russian?"

Chuck's eyes fluttered as his Intersect sought out the language database stored inside of his head. "I got it. They said, 'Do you need to know the number of a good gynecologist?' " Chuck suddenly wondered what the hell happened.

Jimmy looked at him oddly. "And...does anybody want to translate what Chuck said?"

"Alexander was just telling Davydov about the bank accounts," Sarah replied.

"OK, the Intersect still has a few bugs in it. Sorry."

Casey observed Alexander and Davydov get up and head for the door. "They're heading outside."

"I'll follow," Sarah replied.

"No, stay there. I got them." Jimmy quickly countered. He pulls out his gun to see if it was loaded.

"I'm coming with you," Chuck said.

"No, we need your eyes in the van in case something goes wrong. I'll keep an eye on them out of sight and call in the cavalry when the time is right."

Jimmy exited slowly out of the van, being careful not to draw attention. He walked across the road to the club, ducking down behind a row of cars. Davydov and Alexander walked towards the Lincoln.

"This information should be more than enough to clear my debt to you."

_Oh great_, Jimmy thought. _How_ _the hell did we miss that?_

"These accounts would be most profitable, Alexander. If they were actually here." Davydov took the memory stick from Alexander. "How in the hell did that man find you?"

"Murdock caught a lucky break, but he's dead now. Did you not see the news?"

Davydov slapped him across the face. "The man was never identified. You mean to say they couldn't find his family? Or perhaps you were set up."

One of Davydov's men handed him a scanner. Davydov inserted the memory stick in it. The scanner immediately beeped, revealing the fake memory stick. Davydov threw it down on the ground and crushed it with his shoe.

"He knew about you all along, and you almost led him to me!" Davydov pulled out a gun and shot Alexander in the head. He collapsed to the ground immediately. Two of Davydov's men lifted the corpse and placed it in the trunk of the car.

Jimmy witnessed the entire exchange. "Uh, now may be a good time to retrench and think of a new…"

The sound a gun being cocked could be heard over everybody's earpiece. Jimmy turned around to see one of Davydov's men holding a gun to his head. He slowly stood up. The man took his gun away and prodded him forward towards Davydov. Sarah walked quickly to the door.

"Casey, Jimmy's in trouble. I'll go get him. Chuck, move the van closer."

"No, wait Sarah, you…" Casey was cut off by a drunken customer getting too close to a dancer. The dancer was calling him over.

Sarah slid outside of the club, removing her shoes. She slowly made her way along the wall, trying to stay out of sight. She could hear Davydov talking to Jimmy.

"Who are you?"

"William Perry. You can call me The Fridge. Used to play football for the Bears. Don't you recognize me? I was in the Super Bowl."

One of the men hit Jimmy across the face. His nose began to bleed.

"Once again. Who are you?"

Jessup. Nathan Jessup. I'd tell you the truth, but you don't look like you could handle it."

Sarah moved around behind the club. She pulled out a knife, since the lack of any material on the waitress uniform prevented her from hiding a gun. This, however, was not a problem to the man who followed her out. He put his gun to her head, and she dropped the knife.

Inside the club, Casey got away and started moving towards the door. The four loud businessmen from earlier took the opportunity to get up and block his path. They moved slowly to the back of the club, taking Casey with them.

Chuck moved the van to the back of the club, and then he quickly looked back at the monitors. He saw Casey in danger. He exited the van quietly and slipped into the club.

Outside, Sarah was moved across from Jimmy. She dropped her shoes on the ground in front of her. Jimmy looked around at the five men surrounding Sarah and him. Davydov puts the pieces together.

"Killing Alexander was the right move. This was a, how you say, sting operation? And you must be the famous Mr. Murdock. And who is this? Some supermodel whore you hired to keep everyone distracted?"

"Uh, don't make her angry," Jimmy replied. "You wouldn't like her when she's angry."

Chuck tiptoed over to the DJ booth and grabbed the mike. "Hey, everybody. We have a special birthday at Bambi's today." Everybody turned towards the DJ booth, including the four men with Casey. "One of our bouncers, Vic, just turned 39 today! And how many times have you done that, Vic? Ha-ha, just kidding buddy. Let's wish him a big Happy Birthday today. I'll point him out for you right now!"

Casey shut his eyes as Chuck turned the spotlight on at the four men. The instant light blinded them enough for Casey to punch out two of them immediately. He kicked in the knee of a third as Chuck bounded over the stage, almost having a dancer land in his arms. He landed a flying kick at the fourth businessman as Casey kicked the head of the two already on the ground. Chuck landed a shot at the one on his knees. All four of the men after Casey were on the ground and unconscious.

"Go help Sarah and Slade," Casey ordered as he pulled the four thugs to the back of the club out of sight.

Sarah looked over at Jimmy and then glanced down. He noticed Sarah wedging her foot under one of the stilettos. He looked up and nodded. She kicked the shoe towards Jimmy, who caught it and drove the heel into the face of the man behind him. Sarah spun and landed a kick to the chin of one of the people behind her, reaching down to grab the other stiletto in the process. She smashed it on the third man as Jimmy planted a back kick into Davydov, knocking him to the ground. The fourth man turned to throw a punch at Sarah. Jimmy spun her off, and the punch hit him in the forehead. The man recoiled in pain from hitting solid bone, and Jimmy landed a haymaker on him to take him out. One of the others attempted to get up, but Sarah threw a jab to put him back down again.

"By the way, what Casey was probably telling you is that dancers and cocktail waitresses never leave a strip club without a bouncer escorting them, just in case there's a lunatic or an ex-boyfriend outside. That guy probably had you pegged for the law right away."

"I could have taken care of that guy, Jimmy." Sarah was a bit annoyed that Jimmy pulled her out of the way.

"I know that, but my face was already messed up, and he wouldn't have made it worse. I've taken a few punches in my life. You do the flying, leaping, kicking stuff, and I'll break fists with the boulder between my shoulders. Our family was never known for their looks, anyway." He retrieved his gun from the unconscious man who took it.

Sarah shook her head. "You really haven't checked a mirror in a year, have you."

Chuck went out to them. "OK, you two seem to have everything under control, so what do I get to do?"

"You got Casey, and we got a high-ranking member of a Russian crime family." Sarah replied.

"Well, it worked out, thanks to you three." Jimmy looked relieved as he turned to Chuck. "By the way, did you really try to get the crowd inside of a strip club to sing Happy Birthday to a bouncer?"

Chuck shrugged. "It was all I could think of. Besides, Casey never…"

"GUN!"

Jimmy pushed Chuck and Sarah to the ground and whipped out his gun, opening fire as Davydov fired at him. Two bullets from Jimmy's gun ended in the middle of Davydov's chest. One bullet hit Jimmy. He collapsed to the ground. Chuck and Sarah crawled over to Jimmy, who was lying on the ground.


	4. Repairing Hearts and Minds, and Arms Too

_I'm trying my best to reduce the size of the chapters. I guess a few people reading my ChuckMeMondays stuff had that complaint. When you have chapters in your stories that are longer than most people's entire stories, perhaps then is a good time to consider that. Hopefully, that means more frequent updates. We'll have to see._

_Of course, feel free to leave feedback? Please? I'm having a bad enough weekend with Chicago choking in the Olympics vote. Throw me a frickin' bone here. I'm the boss. Need the info. (Yes, my pinkie finger is up by my mouth right now.)_

* * *

**_Bambi's  
_****_September 16, 2010  
1:30 PM_**

Chuck and Sarah crawled over to Jimmy, who collapsed to the ground after being shot by Davydov. He was lying face down on the pavement. They turned him over to see his shirt sleeve was covered in blood. They moved him to a sitting position.

"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy clutched his upper arm. He was talking to himself and not taking notice of Chuck and Sarah. "Nice work, jackass. You just blew away your only lead."

He then looked back and forth at the two of them. "Are you two OK?"

Chuck stared at him. "Is this a regular thing for you? You're asking us if WE are OK? You're the one who got shot!"

"Well, I kind of pushed you down hard. You might have gotten hurt."

"Oh, yeah," Chuck replied sarcastically. "Because a bullet through the chest would have been much less painful."

Jimmy slowly got up. Retrieving her knife, Sarah cut open the sleeve on Jimmy's shirt to get a better look at his wound.

"Ah, quit worrying about it." Jimmy's attitude was far too dismissive for Chuck and Sarah's liking. "The bastard just winged me. No big deal."

Sarah checked his arm. "You have a bullet in there. That's not being winged."

Jimmy wiggled his fingers and moved his hand around. "The arm still works. It can't be that bad."

Casey came out with his gun drawn. He looked around the area as several unmarked vehicles pulled up.

"Everybody OK out here?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Jimmy replied, although he looked far from fine. "We have four more jokers out here and a couple of stiffs."

"And Jimmy got shot," Chuck added. Jimmy turned his arm to show Casey.

"You call that being shot?" Casey rolled his eyes. Jimmy gave an 'I told you so' look to Chuck and Sarah.

"Christ, how many more ways can I screw this up?" Jimmy walked around while Chuck stared at him, wondering what Jimmy would consider a positive accomplishment. Solving global warming? Bringing peace to the Middle East?

_**Castle Underground Facility  
**__**September 16, 2010  
**__**3:00 PM**_

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy returned to Castle. Sarah took Jimmy to the first aid station in the facility. Chuck and Casey started to pour over the surveillance video to try and identify anybody else who was with Davydov so they may obtain some information about the Kolinova family. General Beckman was expected to call any minute.

Jimmy was sitting on an examination table. Sarah put on a pair of rubber gloves and brought out a surgical tray. She cleaned the area around Jimmy's wound and was about to remove the bullet.

"This is going to be painful, but I'll try to be careful," Sarah warned him.

"I didn't think you were going to give me a cootie shot," Jimmy said with a smile.

Sarah took a pair of forceps and readied herself to remove the bullet. She hesitated, and Jimmy noticed.

"Uh, not that I would question your skills or professionalism, but do you drink a lot of coffee during the day?"

"Sorry. I'm just having a bit of déjà vu."

"Well, I don't recall you ever taking a bullet out of me before. Although I'm certain you've wanted to put one in a few times."

Sarah gave him a look. "It was somebody else. Someone with MI-6. It was almost the same wound and similar circumstances."

"A decent guy, I hope?"

"For the most part. He certainly knew his job, and he was a big help to us. Although he came off as rather arrogant and really wanted to get into bed with me."

"Trust me. I wouldn't even think about trying to get you into bed."

Sarah had a half-smile of amusement. "God, throw me a little bone here."

Jimmy looked up to the sky and shook his head, wondering where he went wrong. "OK, that's twice now. You're with Chuck. I'm trying to be respectful."

Sarah's half-smile was now a full one. "There's a very thin line between being respectful and having people wonder what your sexual preference is."

Jimmy threw his non-injured arm up in surrender. "OK, if it will make you feel any better, if it wasn't for Chuck, I'd want to rip your clothes off and make love to you for weeks on end. How's that?" Sarah was now laughing. Fortunately, the forceps were far away. "Give me a break, Sarah. You're beautiful, and you know it. It's borderline conceited for you not to acknowledge it."

"I wasn't always this way. Sometimes, it's still difficult for me to accept. I wasn't that pretty in school."

"Stop! I'm calling you on that one." Jimmy waved his hand back and forth in the air, and then he mimicked a football referee throwing a penalty flag. "Right there. Personal foul, 15 yards, excessive bullshitting!"

"I'm serious! You can ask Chuck yourself. He saw what I looked like in high school."

"Yeah, and I'm guessing two things: he'd say you were really cute, and he would be right."

"You mean you can say you used to be ugly but nobody else can say that about themselves?"

"What do you mean 'used to be'? I never stopped. Why do you think I pulled you away from that guy before he hit you? He sure as hell couldn't have made me look worse."

Sarah eyes narrowed. "Oh, who is bullshitting now?" She took the forceps and got a hold of the bullet inside of the wound. She pulled it out, eliciting a painful grunt from Jimmy. She taped a square of gauze on his arm.

Jimmy gave her an icy look. "Thanks. Good imitation of Nurse Ratched, by the way."

"Serves you right for pushing us out of the way and then getting upset about it."

"I was upset because I shot our only lead. If it wasn't for Chuck's flash, this mission is dead in the water."

Sarah pulled off her gloves, not believing Jimmy couldn't grasp the obvious. "And if you didn't do that, Chuck and I are dead, period."

"I just happened to see him first. If you see Davydov pull his gun first, you're pushing Chuck and me to the ground. If Chuck does, he's pushing us to the ground. And no doubt you're having a long talk with him afterward."

Sarah threw the gloves at Jimmy in frustration. He had a look of confusion. "What?"

Sarah's calm demeanor was fading quickly. "You are always doing that! You act like what you've done is nothing special. 24 hours ago, we didn't even know you were alive! We thought you died trying to save us."

"Chuck carried you out…"

"Goddamn it! Stop that!" Sarah hit his arm out of anger. Unfortunately, she connected with the bandage. Jimmy screamed from the pain. He doubled over, clutching his arm.

"Oh, God! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that." She tried to pull him back up and check his arm. Jimmy waved her off.

"It's OK. Don't worry about it. I deserved it."

That was the wrong answer. "No! You didn't deserve that. You're the one who got Chuck in there, and you're the one who got us out. He told me what happened. Why can't you even acknowledge doing something heroic like that?"

"Well, then you know he couldn't get both of us out. He had to choose you. I just made sure he didn't give it a second thought. There was nothing heroic about it. A choice between your life and mine? One plus one is tougher to figure out."

Sarah looked down at the ground. "This is…this is a lot to take. I thought I was doing OK, but…" She tried to look up at Jimmy, but she couldn't hold his gaze. "That was one of the hardest things I ever went through in my life, the day of your funeral. I know this sounds awful, but I hated you for getting killed. Everything that happened, everything you did, and you left us. It took me a long time to get over it."

Jimmy shook his head. He turned away, ashamed to even look at Sarah. "Chuck was talking about that yesterday. How you…I didn't want you to go through that. I didn't mean to cause you any pain. That had to be horrible. I am so sorry."

Sarah stared at him in disbelief. She was having a hard enough time dealing with the fact he was dead to her barely 24 hours ago, but now this? "You're sorry? You literally give up your life to save ours, and you're apologizing for it? Stop thinking you did something wrong!" Sarah's voice began to crack. "Nobody has ever done anything like that for me in my life! How…how do you even begin to thank someone who willingly dies for you?"

Jimmy turned back to Sarah and gave her a gentle smile. "You just did."

Sarah shut her eyes, ready to burst into tears. She put her head on Jimmy's shoulder and hugged him tightly. He held on to her. She was afraid to let go, fearing he might disappear again. It was something she had grown accustomed to over her life, and it was only in the last two years did that trend start to reverse itself. Chuck and Casey, and Chuck's family and friends by extension, were always there. Sarah found a comfort in it she never had before. That wasn't supposed to happen to agents. In fact, they always taught her to keep her distance from people. Like Carina once told her, she might have to kill them a minute later. Her life here was supposed to be that way. However, she never anticipated meeting someone like Chuck. People like him were never found in her line of work. Thinking back to those first days, she shuddered at the fact he was so trusting of anything and everything she did. She had to admit she used that to her advantage at the outset. Eventually, his friendly, hopeful nature, whether it got him into trouble or got them out of it, started to break down some of those walls she built over the years to shield herself from being hurt. As a result, she was a much different person these days. She sure as hell wouldn't be reacting the way she was right now had she never fallen in love with Chuck.

It was funny how Jimmy's injured arm brought up memories of Cole Barker, given the two men could not be more opposite of one another. Both may have been very skilled and courageous, but Cole needed a healthy dose of humility, while Jimmy needed to be drained of it. Sarah's past always kept her well-grounded, even on some of her more successful missions. It took Cole quite some time to treat them as partners, but he eventually worked well with them. Jimmy never had a problem working with them, but he was always more concerned about them than he was about himself. Sometimes, a complete lack of arrogance was as dangerous to an agent as having too much of it.

"So, how are you with repairing cracked ribs? 'Cause I think you're about to break a couple of mine."

Sarah smiled and squeezed him harder. "Tough crap." Jimmy laughed. She looked at him and wiped away a few tears.

"You know, just because nobody ever did something like that for you doesn't mean nobody would. I can name a boatload of people who would have done what I did and not even hesitate. You fit in around here like you've been with them all of their lives."

"It was the job, though. Everybody knew me as Chuck's girlfriend."

"They knew you because you were Chuck's girlfriend. They love you because of you. I remember what Ellie said to you in the hospital. She treats you like her own sister. That's a helluva lot more than just the job. Awesome couldn't say enough about you the next day when was doing those tests on me. I'm guessing that hasn't changed one bit since last year."

"No, it hasn't. Given how I started, sometimes it doesn't feel like I earned that right."

Jimmy got a big smile on his face. "Well, Walker, I guess you better get used to the fact that everybody gives a rat's ass about you."

She exhaled in annoyance. "I hate when people use my own words against me."

He playfully made a face at her. "Tough crap." She responded with a humorous snarl and gave him a kiss.

Jimmy hopped off the table and pulled down the sleeve on his shirt. Chuck walked in.

"How's the patient?"

Jimmy turned toward Sarah. "How is the patient, Doc?"

"He's sarcastic, annoying, and a total pain in the neck," she replied with a sideways glance at Jimmy.

"In other words, normal." Sarah gave him a light smack to the back of the head. "Hey, it's you're fault. Don't set me up so well next time."

"And on that note…" Chuck was beginning to wonder about the two of them. "General Beckman is ready."

They walked to the conference table where Casey was already seated. The image of General Beckman was on the LCD panel.

"I see all of you have met Agent Murdock."

"They know, General." Jimmy didn't bother trying to keep it a secret.

Beckman looked a bit surprised. "How?"

Jimmy gestured toward Chuck. "It's a little hard keeping secrets from the guy who knows all of them."

Beckman quickly regained her no-nonsense countenance. "Fortunately, Chuck's flash prevented today from being a complete debacle." Sarah refused to look towards Jimmy, but she felt a self-righteous smug gaze coming from that side of the table.

General Beckman continued. "Russian FSB is convinced the Kolinova crime family is looking to obtain military or intelligence material. Davydov found Alexander and effectively coerced him into obtaining information. Alexander was attempting to pay off a family debt to the Kolinova group."

"Unfortunately, both he and Davydov are now dead," Jimmy replied. "We have nothing."

"Not necessarily. Kolinova is rumored to be heading here to become more involved in the acquisition of information. FSB does not know what information they have from Alexander, if any, or what they intended to do with the information. However, we might be able to use Slade to make them an offer. He can attempt to obtain any information he can and perhaps apprehend more members of the family."

"You're sending him back out there alone?" Sarah was unable to mask her concern.

"No, I'm sending all of you. We'll need plenty of technical support and Agent Bartowski's special talents, of course. Chuck, you will also assist Mr. Slade with the decryption of the files. However, I am sending someone to take point in this mission. Kolinova is expected to land in Las Vegas the day after tomorrow. You'll meet your team lead out there tomorrow night. Pack your bags."

The LCD screen went off. Jimmy turned to the group slightly relieved.

"Well, at least I get to keep my job for another day."

Casey was already dreading Chuck's playful attitude towards going to Las Vegas, and Jimmy's presence would make it that much worse.

"We have a lot to prepare. Let's get going." Everybody got up from the table. Jimmy passed by Chuck as they exited.

"Do you think we'll get there by midnight?"

Chuck grinned. "Baby, we're gonna be up five hundy by midnight!"

Casey shook his head and growled. This was going to be a long, long mission.


	5. The Way You Look Tonight

_Usually I update on Sundays, but this was, to say the least, an interesting weekend. I ended up a day behind. Most of this was written within the last few days, and thank you to everybody who gave me their opinions on chapter length. Just for you, you get a very healthy dose of Charah in this chapter. I should warn you the Charah tapers off a bit for the next several chapters, so enjoy it now._

_As always, make plenty of comments. Come on, I know you're excited Chuck may be coming back by the end of October, so you must be in a good mood. Comment away._

* * *

_**Las Vegas, NV  
September 17, 2010  
2:30 PM**_

Sarah spent the 30-minute trip from McCarran International Airport to the Wynn Hotel glancing back at Jimmy, who was in the back seat of the van. As soon as they exited the plane, he got on his mobile phone and had been talking ever since. She got very little out of listening to his end of the conversations. The occasional "yes," "thank you," and "I appreciate it" were all she could delineate. Between calls, Chuck asked to whom he was talking, but Jimmy only replied he was checking on a few items. Once they were at the hotel following the interminable drive along Las Vegas Boulevard, Jimmy would return to Nellis for a few hours to retrieve a laptop computer and the encrypted accounts. He and Chuck would work on them for the rest of the day, and their team lead was expected to arrive later tonight. Kolinova's group would arrive early tomorrow, according to intel sources. Until then, settling into their rooms was the only order of business.

Sarah was starting to get over the shock that Jimmy was still alive. It was much less of a shock to discover that Jimmy had indeed been recruited into the CIA and was on his way to being an agent. She thought that he could be an excellent agent, but looking at him now, even this much progress in six months was impressive. He had the demeanor of a seasoned veteran yesterday at Bambi's. His combat skills, raw but respectable before, had improved considerably. She never doubted for one second they could take those four men out. It took her weeks to develop the same rapport in the field with Bryce that she had with Jimmy in only a few days. With Chuck and Casey taking care of the men inside, she considered yesterday a success, in spite of Beckman's assessment to the contrary.

Sadly, she figured Jimmy would agree more with Beckman's opinion of the mission. That one part of him was alive and well: the part that wouldn't recognize anything he accomplished. He didn't even acknowledge how much better he looked. Perhaps it was a matter of not seeing it from someone else's viewpoint. She could certainly sympathize with it, given that she had the same difficulty herself in college. Her advisers and classmates had told her how different she looked between the time she started in Harvard and when she finished. She was on the receiving end of many a lustful glance from the male students around the campus. She hadn't seen Jimmy in a year, so the differences were more obvious to her. She had told him he would look very handsome once he went through training, and she was right. Sarah hoped Jimmy would figure that out. Whether it was fair or not, sometimes in life you have to use your looks to get what you want. She was experienced enough to know that it worked both ways in the 21st century. Men could turn on the charm to get what they wanted as easily as women could. Jimmy would have to learn to use that to his advantage.

The van pulled up to the entrance and everybody exited. Taking their luggage and several cases of equipment, the four of them made their way into the hotel. As they entered, a young woman in a business suit walked up to Jimmy with a large envelope.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Murdock. It's great to see you again."

"Thanks, Linda. How are Brian and the kids?"

"They're great. Ashley loves her new classmates. She's really taking to school well."

"Wonderful. Were you able to arrange everything?"

"I have it all right here." She handed Jimmy the large envelope. "My card is in there. Feel free to call at any time, even if I'm not here, if there are any problems."

"Thanks for all of your help. I appreciate you putting all that together on such short notice."

"Anytime, Mr. Murdock. Enjoy your stay."

Linda departed as the four of them headed for the elevators. As they made their way down the hall, several employees greeted Jimmy, all of them calling him Mr. Murdock. Several valets offered to assist with the luggage, but Jimmy waved them off with a quick thank you. They arrived at the elevators. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey stared at him while they waited for the elevator to arrive.

"OK, what's going on?" Chuck was wondering what he just saw.

"What?"

"Have you been here before? They're treating you like a visiting dignitary. How do they even know you?"

"Oh, I was here for a few weeks back in April doing some freelance work for them. A couple of people needed tax help, a few files needed straightening out. No big deal."

"We get greeted at the door? Your own personal concierge? Everybody offering to take our bags? Not a big deal?"

"I really wish they'd stop that. I just did some computer work, that's all."

Chuck regarded him oddly as they entered the elevator. Jimmy could have prevented the hotel from being blown up, and he wouldn't think it was a big deal. Jimmy opened the envelope Linda gave him and started to take out items.

"I think these should be yours," he said, handing room keys to Chuck and Sarah. He handed another room key to Casey. He took the remaining keys and a small folder of information out of the envelope. He quickly glanced through the information as the elevator opened on the 8th floor. Casey exited with his luggage, and Jimmy grabbed the two cases of equipment. Chuck and Sarah began to exit the elevator, but Jimmy stopped them.

"Actually, I think you're room is on the 14th floor. I'll get this equipment set up, and then I'll head to Nellis to get the files and my things."

Chuck and Sarah gave him a quizzical look as the elevator doors closed on them.

"What was that all about? Sarah asked.

"I have no idea. Why would we be on a different floor from them?" Chuck was confused.

The elevator opened on the 14th floor, and they exited. Chuck glanced at the envelope with their room card for the number: 14-015. They headed down the hallway. After what seemed like a two-block walk, they found their room. Chuck opened the door and allowed Sarah to enter first. He took two steps in and accidentally bumped into her. She had stopped barely inside the room. Both looked around, not believing what was in front of them.

Their room was as big as a moderately-sized suburban house. A living room area dominated the middle of the suite they were in with several couches, an immense entertainment unit with a 60-inch plasma TV, a wet bar, and a baby grand piano. Chuck could actually feel his feet sink into the thick carpeting as they looked around. Doors on either side of the room led to the bedrooms. They quickly walked to what looked like the main bedroom. The bedroom alone was the size of their entire apartment. A floor-to-ceiling window at one end gave a panoramic view of the Strip, with Caesar's Palace, the MGM Grand, the Bellagio, and the Mirage in the distance. The closets were large enough to house the women's clothing section of a major department store. The bathroom had dual marble vanities, a whirlpool tub, and a glass shower large enough to fit an entire football team…with their equipment on.

Chuck was astounded. "This is…this is amazing! Have you ever seen anything like this?"

"I've heard of an agent or two who stayed in a place like this as part of a cover, but this is definitely a first for me." It took a significant event to impress the normally unflappable Sarah, but knowing this was their room did the trick.

They placed their bags on the bed, which was so large that calling it king-size would be an insult. Chuck couldn't get over where he was.

"Jimmy must have done this. What in the hell did he do for this hotel? This room must be at least five grand a night!"

"I don't know. I almost feel guilty about staying in here and leaving them downstairs."

"So do I. But I doubt we could get Casey to take the room, and Jimmy handed us the keys, so obviously he had no intention of taking it."

Sarah slid her arms around Chuck. "Mmmm, I'd love to stay up here for a while, but we should probably get down and help Casey and Jimmy with the computer equipment."

Chuck had a slight look of disappointment. "Yeah, you're right." He gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Neither of them moved. Chuck gave her a longer kiss this time.

"Maybe we should check the tub first and make sure the hot water works. You never know."

"Great idea." The two dashed into the bathroom.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 16, 2010  
5:00 PM**_

Jimmy was at the computer in a hotel room sitting between Casey's and his own. He was downloading the accounts from a memory stick he brought from the base. He made the quick trip to Nellis, where he retrieved the files from an electronic safe in the facility that required fingerprint security and a retinal scan which would open only for him. He also retrieved a suitcase of clothes, a small box, and his laptop, along with several garment bags that were prepared for him. An Air Force liaison spent the previous night buying several suits, ties, 4 pairs of shoes, and a tuxedo for him. Fortunately for Jimmy, the liaison had taken more than her fair share of surreptitious glances at him while he worked at Nellis, so she had a good idea of his size. Completely oblivious to it, Jimmy simply got her a bouquet of flowers and a spa gift card as a thank you for her work.

Casey was in the hallway, reprogramming the electronic locks on the doors. Each of the doors would now only respond to the keycards given them, which had been reset with a unique code the hotel didn't have. Jimmy already arranged with Linda to have the housekeeping team skip those rooms when they made their daily rounds. She had questioned why, but he explained this while also explaining the presence of Chuck, Sarah, and Casey as assisting him in conducting an emergency audit of a local company. She didn't question him after that.

Chuck and Sarah arrived on the 8th floor and approached Casey. He watched them come down the hall with his usual distaste at seeing the two of them walk hand-in-hand.

"About time you two showed up. Should I call maintenance and order you a new bed?"

"Glad you're enjoying your stay, too," Chuck replied with the usual cautious sarcasm he reserved for the moody NSA agent. "Was our help needed that badly down here?"

"We're set. Slade's a pain in the ass, but he does work for a living."

"We promise, we'll do the work tonight," Sarah replied. "You can relax and enjoy yourself. And I'm not even going to ask how you'll accomplish that."

"There's no need. Slade already said he'd be on the clock tonight, so all three of us have the night off."

"He shouldn't be doing that," Chuck answered. "He deserves a night off more than any of us. Besides, I still need to help him with the files."

"Where is he?" Sarah asked.

"Inside," Casey replied. "Your keys should work on the door now."

Chuck and Sarah entered the room. Jimmy was typing away at the computer. He glanced over.

"Hi there. Did you two settle in?"

"Uh, yeah." Chuck looked at him suspiciously. "How did you get a room like that?"

"Actually, they were trying to put me in one of the apartments on the top floor, but I talked them out of it."

"Jimmy, the truth," Sarah replied, her voice taking on a bit of a no-nonsense tone. "Why is everybody fawning all over you at this hotel?"

"I don't know. I helped them with a few things, that's all. Nothing earth-shattering. I helped them with an issue they had, and a couple of the employees asked me some questions about their finances. Like I said, I could only talk them down to less of a luxury room. I figured you two would get better use out of that room than Casey or I would."

"Isn't that a little unfair to Casey?" Chuck asked.

"Well, if I know Casey, I can take an educated guess to where he's heading tonight. I'm all set with him, so don't worry about that. Besides, giving him the nice room would be insulting to him, wouldn't it?"

"Perhaps, but what about you? I'm assuming you haven't had a night off in a long time."

"I haven't, but I have work to do with these files."

"Come on, Jimmy. You're allowed to relax once in a while. Besides, I'm supposed to help you with the decryption."

"Fine, you can help until 7. After that, you two are heading out and having some fun. How often do the two of you get to have fun in a place like this?"

Chuck had to concede that point. Work had been fairly steady for the last six months. Sarah and he hadn't had opportunity for a night out of this magnitude in a long time. It would be borderline criminal not to take advantage of such a nice hotel in Las Vegas on a Friday night, especially since there would be plenty of work the rest of the weekend. He felt guilty about leaving Jimmy to carry the workload tonight, but it was obvious this was the type of argument Jimmy would win.

"OK, that's fair. Let's see what you have."

Sarah watcheed Chuck take a seat next to Jimmy. As much as she knew about computers through prior experience and everything Chuck taught her, she got the feeling this was going to go over her head quickly.

"I'll check on Casey and see if he needs any help."

Sarah exited the room as Jimmy brought up the code he was using to decrypt the files. Chuck began to study it.

"This code was working for a while, but once the code tried to resequence these variables, it was giving me errors."

Chuck continued to study the code. His eyes began to flutter. Jimmy recognized the telltale signs of a flash.

"Did the flash work this time? 'Cause I really don't need advice on how to please a man in bed. Casey isn't THAT cute."

Chuck gave him an annoyed glance. "OK, sometimes the Intersect doesn't work right, but I think I have it this time." Chuck started making corrections to the program. "Actually, your code wasn't that far off. The only problem was your code is about two versions old. Let me fix this one module."

Jimmy watched Chuck rewrite the module. He had to admit a certain amount of envy towards Chuck, given the two shared such an unusual bond. He had worked very hard over the last six months to get to a level that Chuck was already beyond. The abilities Chuck had through his new Intersect made him much more skilled while Jimmy continued to contend with his old-school Intersect, which grew smaller in value, but not difficulty, with each passing day. Had Chuck been any other person, Jimmy might have resented him for having so many people almost worship him, to say nothing about having such a beautiful and astounding woman in love with him. However, Chuck was deserving of everything he got and more. Jimmy never met two people more worthy of good fortune than Chuck and Sarah. Telling Chuck to leave him behind in the Ring facility in order to save Sarah was the easiest decision he ever made. He just didn't realize he would live to see the results of it.

Chuck activated the compiler for the program and then ran a test. The program seemed to work properly now.

"Can you guess how long before the decryption finishes?" Jimmy asked.

"Not for at least 24 hours."

"You can't take a guess for at least 24 hours?" Jimmy deadpanned. Chuck started laughing.

"I'll say this: you haven't lost your sense of humor."

"They gave me an alias of Roger Murdock. How can I not quote _Airplane_? That's like playing golf and not dropping a _Caddyshack_ line."

Chuck looked at Jimmy. "You should really have the room upstairs. You deserve it more than we do. Hell, the hotel meant it for you, anyway."

"Yeah, but what would I do with it? This room down here is a luxury resort as far as I'm concerned. I spent all those years in piss-ant studio apartments or run-down fleabag motels just trying to eke out a living. I kept moving from town to town. For once, I feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. I never felt that way in school or in life even once. And I wouldn't have done any of what I did in the last six months if I hadn't met the three of you. I deserve that big room upstairs more than you and Sarah? I beg to differ."

"Errgh, do you realize how annoying you sound when you do that? Everything we went through last year and you stepped up every time the pressure was on. You never hesitated or backed down when we needed you. Even yesterday, it was like you've been a spy all of your life. And let's not forget the little added bonus of constantly saving our lives, including in the club parking lot. Or do I need to remind you of that bullet you took for us?" Chuck started to feign giving Jimmy's left arm a smack.

"OK, OK. Fine. We would probably spend hours going back and forth on this 'who deserves it more' argument, so let's call it even."

"Deal."

"Good. Now get upstairs and don't keep the Mrs. waiting."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stick around?"

Jimmy started imitating a grandpa. "C'mon, sonny. You kids go out and have fun. Me and grandma, we're gonna watch us some _Matlock_ and some _Murder, She Wrote_. Maybe we'll push the beds together and get a little frisky."

Chuck laughed. "OK, I'll check on you in a little while before we head out."

"No problem."

Chuck exited the room and went upstairs.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 17, 2010  
8:00 PM**_

The only problem with wearing a tuxedo was getting the tie just right. Chuck stood in front of the mirror in the bedroom attempting to do just that. He originally thought it would be enough to wear a suit tonight, but he knew Sarah's eyes always lit up whenever he wore the tuxedo. Perhaps it was the thought of getting dressed up to go out on the town…or the hotel ballroom in this case…or maybe he carried himself better when he wore one. There were so few instances when he could wear one without a mission involved, and he intended to take advantage of it tonight. He got the tie in just the right spot, and he glanced to his right. If it was possible to stop dead in one's tracks while standing still, he just accomplished it.

Sarah emerged from the sitting area near the bathroom in a body-hugging turquoise silk cocktail dress. The straps tapered down into a V-shape plunging neckline that looked like it was custom-designed for her. The dress sauntered along her body to the ground with a slit up one side that allowed plenty of leg to show through. She wore her hair in a tight bun that accented the long slope of her sensuous neck. Chuck's mind was already calling the ballroom to cancel their reservation so he could spend the rest of the night planting hot kisses along the soft nape of her neck.

Sarah noticed his deer-in-the-headlights look and smiled. She walked up, standing mere inches from him. "Clearly we know what you think of my outfit." She started fixing his tie, her hand sliding down his chest as she completed it. "And you look absolutely gorgeous tonight." She wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her toes to kiss him.

Chuck gazed into her sapphire eyes. "I must have said you look beautiful hundreds of times before, but somehow you never stop becoming even more beautiful. You are unquestionably the most amazing person I've ever known."

Sarah had a smile on her face more brilliant than the lights outside their window. "Sometimes I think you say that just so I'll kiss you." She drew his face to hers and gave him a long passionate kiss, holding him tightly. "And it works every time."

He gently brushed her hair back from her eyes. "Are you ready?"

She took his hand. "Let's go."

Chuck and Sarah exited the room and headed for the elevator.

"Oh, I should stop by the 8th floor and see how Jimmy is doing with the files," Chuck said.

"That's no problem. I feel a little bad for going out while he's working."

"He insisted. Besides, I get the feeling he's not quite up to the 'party all night' atmosphere this town has yet. He's been doing nothing but training for six months. He certainly needs a night off, but I think he has to work his way up to it. I don't think he realizes he was turning a lot of heads when we walked through the casino."

The elevator opened, and they entered. Sarah pressed the button for the 8th floor. "I noticed that. I don't think he comprehends how handsome he is now. Maybe it's a matter of not seeing himself the way others do. He better learn quickly. He is certainly getting the ladies' attention now."

Chuck turned his boyish charm up to full wattage. "Well, perhaps you can give him a few lessons. You can knock planets off their axis with how gorgeous you look."

"Now, now. That just sounds like we're on a blind date and you're trying to get me into bed."

"Sorry."

Sarah pressed him up against the wall of the elevator and kissed him hard. "I didn't tell you to stop, either." She hooked her leg around him and continued to kiss him, her tongue playfully reaching inside for his. The opening door of the elevator stopped her from undoing his belt.

"Whoops, right. We're going out." She gave a guilty smile and exited the elevator. Chuck followed slowly behind, trying to calm parts of him down a bit.

They walked down the hall to the meeting room between Casey's and Jimmy's rooms. Chuck knocked on the door and entered. "Everything OK so far?"

Jimmy started looking behind Chuck on either side of him. Chuck was confused.

"What are you looking for?"

Jimmy arched an eyebrow. "I was looking for the short-haired models that play the guitar and drums while you sing _Addicted to Love_."

Chuck looked down at his attire and laughed. "Oh. Yeah, I don't get to wear this out very often."

"You have reservations downstairs?"

"Yes, we have YOUR reservations downstairs. That reservation in our suite was meant for you."

"Yeah, but what would I do with it? I'm working. Besides, you know how long it would take me to find a date?"

"About 5 minutes? Dude, you gotta stop thinking like it's a year ago. You've got GQ cover written all over you now. You really have to get out and enjoy yourself."

"Once I'm done with training. Besides, don't you remember? Mr. Inexperienced here? Quit worrying about me. Go enjoy yourself."

"Fine. But don't think you've gotten out of anything. You're going to have fun whether you like it or not."

Jimmy gave him a mocking look. "Sir, yes sir!"

Chuck rolled his eyes and exited.

_**Villa Venice Bar  
September 17, 2010  
9:00 PM**_

Casey never liked off-hours. He never knew what to do with himself when there was no work to be done. However, this job was not your standard 9-to-5 atmosphere. Sometimes everything hit at once, and sometimes you spent your time waiting. All of the work that could be completed today was done within a few hours. An extra set of hands, especially ones as technically gifted as Jimmy's, meant there was little to do until their team lead arrived and the Kolinova family hit town. In Burbank, he grew accustomed to kicking back with a good scotch while eavesdropping on Chuck's annoying conversations with Morgan, or eyeing the courtyard in Echo Park to make sure everything was normal. None of that was necessary tonight, and the only work that needed to be monitored was the decrypting of the accounts, which was already being done.

A quick glance through the hotel's guide gave Casey a place to go. Villa Venice was a bar in the hotel where you could get a good drink and a good cigar. The old-world wood paneling and darkened atmosphere was appealing. The bar was named for a Chicago venue where the Rat Pack performed a live concert in 1962. Sure enough, the clientele in the bar this evening were 40 and 50-something men and women who were enjoying a drink the way it was meant to be served while a reasonably good crooner was belting out the songs of Frank, Sammy, and Dean. It wasn't the most ideal atmosphere for Casey, but you tended to stick out in restaurants in Las Vegas if you dined alone, and he was past the age of techno nightclubs. This would suffice.

A waitress approached him with a box of cigars. "Cigar, sir?"

Casey looked over the choices. There were several varieties from Honduras and Costa Rica. The selection also included a few Cuban cigars. In his youth, he might have resented smoking a cigar from an "enemy" of the United States, but he had mellowed on some fronts over the years. He took one of the Cuban cigars. The waitress removed the tip with a cigar cutter and readied a lighter. Casey dug into his pockets for some money.

"Oh, free of charge sir. Compliments of Mr. Murdock."

Casey raised an eyebrow. "He bought these?"

"Actually, sir, I should say they're compliments of the management. We've been trying to get Mr. Murdock to stay here as a thank you, but he always turned us down until now. He told our business concierge to show your party every courtesy. May I get you a drink, sir?"

"A scotch."

"Is Johnnie Walker Blue Label acceptable?"

Casey's eyes widened. He had learned to expect the unusual before, but this was getting weird. "I'd be fine with Black Label or Red."

"Again, sir. Compliments of the management. I'll get it for you right away."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Casey sat back in the booth, relaxing his posture a bit. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be as long as he thought.

_**Grand Marquis Ballroom  
September 17, 2010  
9:15 PM**_

Chuck and Sarah were sitting at a table finishing their desserts. It had been a long time since they had a night out like this, and they were enjoying themselves to the fullest. Everything worked perfectly. The dinner was superb, the wine was a great complement to the meal, and they were entertained by a full band playing in the background. The tone of the music was soft for the moment as people finished their meals. However, the music was expected to pick up soon.

The hall reminded Sarah of a wedding she attended undercover years ago to obtain information on the father of the groom and the dealings he had with an unfriendly government. Unfortunately, the cover required she attend the wedding with a college friend of the groom. Ironically, the man looked a lot like the Jimmy of a year ago, only her "date" was a very slimy individual. CIA training taught her several methods of keeping an undercover date off of her without being overt, but even that night presented a lot of problems. Fortunately, she was able to sneak into an upstairs office to steal the incriminating files off of a computer before her "date" tried to get her up to a hotel room. She didn't even need to slip him a tranquilizing mixture; the dozen or so rum and Cokes he had at the reception did the work for her.

This night was much different as she stared into the chocolate brown eyes of her boyfriend. It was funny how he always told her he could get lost in her azure eyes and never want to return. She could say the exact same thing about his. For eyes that contained such mirth and energy, they also had a depth greater than any ocean that told the story of an amazing person. A person who accepted the fate dropped in his hands and always found a way to make things better, whether it was stopping a band of assassins from stealing vital information or holding her close on a dance floor as she finally realized that she wanted so much more out of life besides this job. Sometimes she wondered what would have happened had Chuck not downloaded the new Intersect. A small part of her even resented him for doing it. But she realized that he did it for her and for everyone who wanted him to be so much more than what he thought he was. He became that individual, sometimes for worse but mostly for better, but it never changed how he felt about her.

"You look a little lost, Sarah."

Oops, he caught her. It was not like her to not be in tune with her surroundings, but it was highly unlikely some sort of major crisis would happen tonight.

"Just lost in thought, sweetie."

"Good thoughts, I hope?"

She smiled. "Very good thoughts."

Being so lost in thought, Sarah did not realize the band had started to play and there were people on the dance floor. The band started to play a tango. Chuck looked at her with a bemused expression.

"You know, I haven't had a chance to try out any of the dance skills this Intersect almost certainly has. Care to see if it works?"

She rose and offered her hand to him. "Delighted."

They walked out to the dance floor. Sarah stood in front of Chuck, holding his hips close. He held his hands over hers as the Intersect did indeed recall the techniques of several dances. They stepped in perfect sync along the dance floor. A quick turn, and she pressed into him, hooking her leg around him. He held her at the thigh, gliding back across the floor. Sarah was impressed by how well they were dancing together as their tango continued. As they held each other's hands and stepped while attached at the hip, their movements caught the eyes of several couples, all of whom were very impressed. They floated across the floor, her silken hair brushing up against his cheek. A quick step and pirouette, and he ended the dance with a slow dip, their eyes locking in on each other as he cradled her in his arms. The smile on her face was greater than any smile she experienced in her life. She placed her hands on his cheeks as he gently brought her back up, giving him a soft, sensual kiss. Several couples at tables nearby applauded.

_**Villa Venice Bar  
September 17, 2010  
10:30 PM**_

Casey was relaxing with his third scotch and second cigar. He had to admit this was actually quite refreshing. The singer was very talented. He wasn't sure why, but the thought of Ilsa suddenly popped in his head. _Those were wonderful times_, he thought. Of course, they were wonderful once again, now that he knew she was alive and working somewhere in Europe, helping keep the planet safe. Her supposed death haunted him for many years, and finding out their relationship was a lie was a hurt like he never had before. However, both of them realized that they cared more for each other than their respective jobs would allow. Although neither of them had seen the other since that morning after taking down Victor Federov, the possibility was always there. Casey really couldn't imagine any other life than the one he had now, but this job did not lend itself well to people who were alive when space travel was still largely a science-fiction concept. It was a young person's game, and he had more than his fair share of miles on the meter. He could live off of his pension or find something he enjoyed doing as a civilian. He certainly earned it. But somehow it didn't feel right to do it if there was nobody with whom to share that time.

A concierge from the hotel walked up to him. "Are you Mr. Jayne? Mr. Chad Jayne?

Casey recognized one of his aliases. That might have been the name Sarah gave Jimmy for the hotel. "Yes, sir."

"This was at the front desk for you, sir."

"Thank you."

Casey took the box and the envelope from the concierge. He studied the box. It was a medal box, specifically one used by the U.S. military. He opened the box. A Bronze Star was inside. It was the Bronze Star he placed in Jimmy's coffin at his funeral. He shook his head. Obviously, Jimmy was never in that coffin in the first place. Casey assumed his body was burned in the explosion beyond recognition, and the coffin was simply used symbolically for the funeral. He opened the envelope and read the letter inside.

_Casey,_

_I am very honored that you would give me a Bronze Star for what happened during our time together. But this really belongs to you. You earned it defending our country, and it should stay with you. It shouldn't be inside the coffin of someone who isn't even dead. I wanted to return it, but I couldn't for obvious reasons until now. Thank you for thinking of me in that manner. It is something I will never forget. Hopefully I'll be worthy of such a bestowment one day. _

_Sincerely,  
Jimmy_

_P.S. Chuck and Sarah do not know about this, and I will leave to you to tell them should you ever desire to do so. _

Casey closed the box. It was only appropriate that the singer launched into an excellent rendition of "My Kind of Town" right then. Casey had to admit he really did find three people he could respect in this world. He raised his glass.

"To good partners and good friends." He took a healthy swig of the smooth scotch.

_**Grand Marquis Ballroom  
September 17, 2010  
11:00 PM**_

Chuck and Sarah had not left the dance floor since their tango. Most of the songs had been of the slow-dance variety, and they spent the night enjoying holding each other and dancing to classic big band songs.

"Did you go to your prom in high school?"

Sarah's question to Chuck took him by surprise. "Yes, I did. Honestly, I don't remember much about it. It was OK, but we hung out as friends. Had we been doing something else that night, I don't think it would have made much of a difference. Thank God Ellie was in the middle of final exams at the time. She probably would have bent over backwards making sure I went."

Sarah giggled. "I can see that. I love her like a sister, but she can get into people's affairs a little too much for her own good."

"Why were you asking about my prom? Did you go to yours?"

"No. I didn't have a date."

"Don't try to tell me it was because you weren't pretty enough. You know that won't work with me."

"No, not that. There just wasn't anybody I wanted to spend that night with in my school. Besides, the other students at school probably would have made the evening hell for me. I got enough of that during the school day."

"OK, I can understand that." Chuck gave her a reassuring smile as they swayed back and forth, the world gently fading away around them.

"I have to admit, this feels a bit like what I always imagined prom would be. Well, there's no corsage or boutonnière and we can drink freely here. But this is how I always hoped it would be. It was worth the wait." Sarah looked down a bit sheepishly. "Does that sound a bit mushy?"

Chuck smiled at her, cradling her face in his hands. "Far from it, Sarah." He planted a gentle kiss on her lips. He suddenly looked away and turned slightly red. "Besides, I think I can top you in the mushy department."

Sarah was intrigued. "How so?"

Chuck continued to go through the full spectrum of red colors on his face. "I was carrying you out of that Ring facility. You were still unconscious. I was hoping that you would wake up so we could both go back and pull Jimmy out. Unfortunately, you didn't wake up until we were well outside. But as I carried you up the stairs, I kept shaking you, hoping you'd wake up. And then…" He stopped, too embarrassed to reveal it.

"Come on, Chuck. You can tell me."

Chuck took a deep breath. "I kissed you." Sarah's eyes widened slightly. "I tried kissing you, hoping you'd wake up. God, I'm trying to get you out of the building before it blows up, and I think I'm in the middle of _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_, for crying out loud. That is so silly, isn't it?"

Now it was Sarah's turn to hold his face and smile. "At one time, I might have thought it was funny. Even a little cute."

"And now?"

She didn't answer. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and the passionate kiss she gave him was the definitive answer. They gently turned on the dance floor as they hungrily sought each other's lips.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 17, 2010  
11:45 PM**_

Chuck and Sarah made their way to the 14th floor, unable to walk straight as they continually knocked each other off-stride with their passionate kissing. Somehow, they worked their way down to Suite 14-015. Chuck opened the door, again allowing Sarah to enter first. For the second time that day, he accidentally bumped into her as she stopped short in her tracks. However, it was the person inside of the room that surprised her.

"Agent Walker. Agent Bartowski. It is a pleasure to see you again."

The even tone with which Chuck and Sarah were greeted belied that statement. However, if Agent Alex Forrest was truly glad to see them again, the feeling certainly wasn't mutual.


	6. 49B 24 34

_Thanks for the reviews. The last chapter was fun to write, and I'm glad everybody liked that Chuck and Sarah had such a nice night in Vegas...at least until the end of the chapter. But I'll be nice and throw in a tiny bit of Charah in this chapter. This one should also be a bit funnier, as I take one character way out of their element._

_Hopefully I'll have Chapter 7 up by next Sunday, but there are some parts to it I have to work out and am having difficulty with them. It's the chapter that ties the first half of the story to the second half, so it's important._

_As always, reviews, reviews, reviews. Please? Pretty please?_

* * *

**_Wynn Hotel  
September 17, 2010  
11:45 PM_**

Chuck and Sarah could say that Alex Forrest would have been near the bottom of the list of people they would choose to be team lead for this mission. However, that would be an insult to the people on the bottom of the list. The same agent that tried to get Sarah fired and almost cost Chuck his life would now be their boss for the duration of this assignment.

"What is all of this?" Forrest gestured to the room. Chuck and Sarah looked at each other. An unspoken understanding passed between them to let Sarah fill in the details as she saw fit. That would likely be an important aspect of dealing with Forrest.

"Colonel Casey has some connections here in Las Vegas, and he was able to procure this room for us. It may be useful in establishing our profile to sell the accounts." Sarah's voice was as even and unemotional as Chuck had ever heard from her.

Chuck tried to maintain a neutral expression. Sarah had him practice that a few times as part of training, but it still needed work. Glancing over at her, the completely unreadable expression on her face made him think she could make a lot of money entering a poker tournament in this town.

"Fair enough." Alex Forrest was no slouch in projecting a neutral tone, either. She took a folder out of her briefcase. "I considered General Beckman's decision to keep you together a dangerous mistake. However, the results would indicate it was the correct one." Forrest read from her folder. "You were instrumental in bringing down Fulcrum, you have the highest success rate of any team west of the Mississippi, and you managed to cripple The Ring for an extended period of time. The only mark on your record is a civilian who was killed while he was under your protection. A James Slade?"

"Yes, he was killed while he assisted Chuck with on-site intel regarding The Ring's installation in Los Angeles."

"Unfortunate, but a small sacrifice given what you accomplished."

Chuck's anger was building quickly. He was ready to tell Forrest what she could go do with herself. Sarah moved a step closer to him and squeezed his hand tightly out of Forrest's vision. He knew to not let what Forrest was saying bother him, but letting the anger drain from his expression took effort.

"However, the two of you are not the ones under scrutiny here. My job is to ensure the success of this mission and assess Mr. Murdock's competency as an agent."

Chuck and Sarah were taken back by that statement. They were under the impression General Beckman merely sent her to lead the mission. The fact that Jimmy's new career was now on the line was something for which they were not prepared.

Forrest read from another document in her folder. "There is very little information on Murdock. A computer science degree from Ohio State 20 years ago is all there is. No skill set listed, no training records, not even a picture. You've seen him for two days. What is your assessment of him thus far?"

"So far, he's been very competent. Fairly intelligent. He has worked well with us." Sarah continued her almost mechanical assessment of Jimmy, attempting to give as little information as possible.

"Not much to go on. Sounds like Beckman is trying to train another computer geek and hope lightning strikes twice. Very well." Forrest placed the folder back in her briefcase and stood up. "We'll meet at 8 AM downstairs to go over strategy for the mission. Until then, have a pleasant night."

Forrest walked quickly to the door and exited the room. Chuck and Sarah looked at each other.

"Clearly she's the same warm, fuzzy person she was before," Chuck said, letting all of his disdain for Forrest show. "How did you manage to not want to punch her lights out? I wanted to kill her for what she said."

"That won't do anybody any good, Chuck. The mission has to come first. Besides, you could tell she was still upset for being wrong about us. Our only 'mark,' as far as she is concerned, isn't one, and it'll be fun to watch her go 0 for 2 when she sees Jimmy is far more than a 'computer geek,' to use her phrase."

"Good point. But what do we do about Jimmy?"

"I don't want to do it, but I think we have to limit how much we tell him about Forrest as well. I don't want him panicking into making a mistake and jeopardizing the mission or his career. It's obvious Forrest doesn't know about his Intersect or how little training he has. We'll talk to him in the morning before we meet with Casey and Forrest. He has done well so far, and we have to keep it that way. It's important we keep an eye on him without Forrest knowing it."

"Oh, right. We have to make it look like we've only known him for a few days." Chuck shook his head. "This is getting complicated. These are not the sort of problems they cover in full CIA training, are they."

Sarah had to smile. The asset she fell in love with despite her best efforts was talking about complications? That was the irony to end all ironies. Served her right for allowing herself to listen to her heart for once.

She slid her arms around him. "To say this is getting complicated is the understatement of the night. But there isn't much we can do about it now."

"You're right. Besides, this has been as magical of a night as we have ever had. I wish it wasn't over."

Sarah looked at him quizzically. "Who said anything about it being over?" She kissed him hard and leaped into his arms. He quickly took the hint and carried her into the bedroom, their lips never breaking contact.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**7:15 AM**_

Chuck knocked gently on Jimmy's door but got no response. He was hoping that Jimmy wasn't starting to get used to sleeping longer, as this would be a bad time to do it. Suddenly remembering he could open the door with his room key, he slid the card into the lock. He opened the door to find nobody in the room. Jimmy's suitcase and garment bag were right where he left them yesterday afternoon, and the bed sheets did not appear to have been disturbed.

_What the hell?_

He looked towards the hotel room with their equipment next door. _He wasn't in there all night, was he? _Chuck quickly went to that door and opened it. Jimmy was sound asleep at the computer. Chuck shook his head. Casey was right: the man works for a living. He moved the mouse on the computer to wake the monitor. The decryption program was still running. Based on the completion percentage, it appeared that the program was running fine and didn't have to be modified. He took the cup of coffee in his hand and held it under Jimmy's nose. Jimmy stirred awake.

"Huh? What?" He opened his eyes slowly to see Chuck standing above him. "Aaah, hell. Did I miss a meeting?"

Chuck smiled. "Not at all. I just thought I would get down here and make sure you got up in time for it. We're meeting in 45 minutes." He handed Jimmy the coffee.

"Thanks." He moved himself to a sitting position and took a sip of coffee. "Mmm, good stuff they have here. Thanks for coming down. A good cup of coffee is probably my second-favorite way of waking up."

"If you want, we could try your favorite method tomorrow."

"We could try, but this isn't Hawaii, and you're not Halle Berry."

Chuck laughed. "Our mission leader came in late last night. Alex Forrest. Tough as nails, and very by-the-book. You might want to watch yourself."

"Thanks for the warning, Kemo Sabe. I should get showered and dressed. I'll be back in time for the meeting."

"Wow, I'm surprised you're taking news like that so well."

"Oh, just wait for the caffeine to kick in, and I'll be in full panic mode. Don't worry."

Jimmy got up and went quickly to his room. Chuck grabbed the chairs from around the room and organized them for the meeting. He was starting to get used to missions with so little information to go on. Sarah and Casey always warned him that at least half of what you know about a mission didn't occur until you're confronted with it. But the combination of them had been successful thus far. No matter what the situation, there was something that one of them, if not all three, brought to the mission to make it a success. Sometimes it was Sarah successfully going undercover at a lavish dinner to charm the right criminal, sometimes it was Casey getting information out of a terrorist by giving him a joyride in the "prisoner containment area" of his Crown Vic, and sometimes it was Chuck discovering a clue inside of an undecipherable message found in an intercepted email. Granted, sometimes Sarah got to do the puzzle solving, Casey did the undercover work, and Chuck was the one to kick some ass. But the successful combination insured that Beckman kept them together as a team.

He had to admit he wouldn't mind being in the spotlight on a mission more often. It had happened before, but most of those occasions involved posing as a couple with Sarah. The reasons made sense, of course. It was always easier to blend into a situation with another person, and having two pairs of eyes out there was infinitely better than having only one pair. But there was something about taking the point in a mission. It made the mission that much more attractive, knowing how crucial your role was, how everybody is depending on you. Chuck and Sarah had talked about it previously. She always told him two things. Firstly he was crazy, since he was always an important part of every mission, and they wouldn't have the success they had without him. Secondly, she admired the almost complete about-face that he had exhibited from when they first met. Even beyond the new Intersect, she saw a confidence in him he didn't originally have. She once told him that some people have to be asked to be heroes. That hadn't been the case with Chuck for a long, long time.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**8:00 AM**_

John Casey entered the meeting room and noticed Chuck and Sarah were already there. Although her back was to him, Casey knew instantly the dishwater-blonde hair of Agent Alex Forrest. Professionally, he didn't mind her as a team leader, since she was a very capable agent. His personal feelings towards her were a different story. Her unsolicited opinions of Sarah, along with her disdainful and dismissive attitude towards Chuck, did not win her any points in his book. Fortunately, this was a situation where everybody would have a specific role and it was a matter of executing those roles. This wouldn't, or at least shouldn't, get personal.

"Where's Murdock?" Casey looked around the room.

"I'll go get him. He was up most of the night watching the decryption." Chuck ignored the contemptuous look by Forrest and went to the door. He opened it to find Jimmy entering. It appeared Jimmy was in panic mode already. He was wearing a shirt and tie, which was in stark contrast to the casual attire everybody else was wearing.

"Sorry, Chuck. I should have unpacked my clothes yesterday. It took a few minutes to iron my shirt, and…" He noticed Forrest turn around with a very offended expression on her face. He lowered his voice so only Chuck could hear it. "Ah, right. Alex could be a woman's name, too. I'm off to a bad start here."

"Don't worry about it," Chuck whispered back. The two of them quickly took seats. Forrest began the discussion.

"Kolinova and his party should be landing in the next 90 minutes, and they'll likely be checked in by 11. The NSA was able to leak some information regarding the incident the other day in Los Angeles. The information leaked implied that Agent Murdock was the one attempting to sell the accounts, and Alexander tried to steal the files from him and sell them to a third party. Davydov then killed Alexander and tried to kill Murdock to sell the files himself. Hopefully, this will prompt Kolinova to try and deal directly with Murdock. If he knows some of the people he trusts are trying to betray him, it may force him to get more personally involved in this deal."

"Do we know who is on the way besides Kolinova?" Sarah asked.

"Apart from some of his attack dogs, Russian FSB thinks that his second-in-command, Dmitri Melekhin, is with him, along with his primary tech person, Anatoly Petrov. No doubt he's here to verify the transfer of the accounts. FSB had given thought in the past to get him to switch to the good guys, but Kolinova must have something on him, or perhaps he outbid the government."

"So the plan is to pretend to broker a deal with Kolinova directly," Jimmy said. "Besides trying to pinch him for stealing files from the government, what else can we get him on?"

"There are two other objectives in this mission. If we can gain access to their network, it would be a fountain of information the Russian government would love to get their hands on. Perhaps Agent Bartowski has some ideas on that. More importantly, we have reason to believe the Kolinova group has ties somewhere in the Russian government. We are not sure with whom, nor are the Russians. If possible, we have to uncover those links."

Jimmy shook his head. This was a tremendous amount of information to obtain simply because he found some bank accounts. Sarah was right: this was way too much for any one person to handle. He was certainly grateful now they didn't let him go back out on his own. That decision kept this mission going.

Agent Forrest continued. "Colonel Casey, you'll provide surveillance outside. Blend in as much as you can. Agent Bartowski, you'll handle piggybacking into the hotel's video surveillance to keep an eye on things. If Kolinova is accessing the computer network in the hotel, hack him and get as much as you can off their computer. Agent Murdock, you're our point man in this situation. You'll run the show outside. Agent Walker and I will be with you to provide additional surveillance and help sell your cover as a high-profile trafficker of information. We'll make ourselves as visible as possible and set up the meeting with Kolinova."

"OK, how do we set that up?" Jimmy asked.

Sarah and Forrest looked at him, and then they looked toward each other. For the first time, they were in complete agreement.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**10:30 AM**_

"There HAS to be a better way to do this. Can't we just meet for lunch? Sit around a roulette table?"

Jimmy was pacing back and forth in his room. The nervousness Chuck feared earlier had made its appearance on Jimmy.

"How many high-stakes roulette wheels are open at this hour on a Saturday?" Sarah asked him with an annoyed expression.

"OK, but you know I won't let a little thing like the facts get in the way of a good panic."

"Just relax. This is the plan that is the simplest and most effective. You'll do fine."

"But to be out in public sitting by the pool wearing a swimsuit with the two of you pretending to be my dates? The last time I wore that little in public, a doctor was holding me upside-down and slapping my ass."

"I don't even know why you're complaining. I have to wear a bikini out there."

"Well, there's a big difference between you and me. You're hot. You could be on a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover if it wouldn't mean guys would find the other models inside a huge letdown. I could be covered with an Arctic snowsuit and women would still be losing their lunch."

"Dammit!" Sarah was starting to lose her patience with Jimmy. This overdeveloped humility he had must come to an end. "There's no time to discuss it. We have to sell you as a big time trafficker, and this is the fastest way to do it under the circumstances. Trust me; you will look great in a swimsuit. Please, just play along, will you?"

Jimmy hung his head. These were his two choices today: embarrass the hell out of himself or have Chuck and Sarah pissed off at him the whole weekend. Embarrassment was the lesser of two evils. "OK. But no _Baywatch_ jokes. I'll go ballistic at the first one of you who starts running in slow motion."

"Would I do that?"

"Chuck and Casey would. At least you'd be nice enough to do it behind my back."

"Will you stop it? You really have to get past this whole negative self-image you have. It won't do you one bit of good in the field. There is such a thing as not being arrogant enough. You have to know what you're capable of. And that includes charming someone with your looks."

There was a knock on the door and Chuck entered, carrying a bag from one of the hotel shops. "I got you a couple of different colors. I think I got your size right."

Jimmy took the bag and looked inside. He glared at Chuck. "You have GOT to be kidding."

"What?" Sarah asked.

Jimmy pulled out one of the swimsuits and dangled it off of his finger with considerable disgust. It was a Speedo briefs-style swimsuit. Sarah had to turn her head and cover her mouth to not laugh hysterically.

"What?" Chuck remained oblivious to shopping for other men. "You could pull that off."

"Are you nuts?" Jimmy was livid. "This isn't a swimsuit, it's a movie cliché! They had more things on at the end of _The Full Monty_!"

Sarah was trying not to grin. "In Chuck's defense, you actually can pull that off." Both Chuck and Jimmy gave her a weird look.

"Sure, no problem. All I need to do is grow my hair long, fake a European accent, and have everybody call me Paolo." He turned for the door.

"Where are you going?" Chuck asked.

"To try and find a swimsuit that doesn't let everyone know how happy I am to see them." Jimmy yanked the door open and exited in a huff. Sarah was shaking her head in aggravation.

"Errgh, I love him to death, but he is so infuriating sometimes. I really don't need this right now. We have Russian mobsters in the hotel who would happily kill us for the files, an ice queen bitch looking for any excuse to rail us in her reports, and I have to be in character downstairs by the pool in less than two hours pretending to be arm candy."

"You don't have to worry about Jimmy. He's a perfect gentleman. He would never even think about touching you inappropriately."

"That's the whole problem, Chuck. He has to play hands-on with me. We're supposed to be pawing him by the pool and he's supposed to do the same thing to us. If he freezes up in front of Forrest or the Russians, we'll be in a lot of trouble."

"I could try talking to him," Chuck offers. "Actually, that would make for a very awkward conversation. Perhaps you can just tell him it's like two actors in a movie. They're just pretending to kiss or make love. Tell him he's playing a role."

Sarah mulled it over. "That's good. I'll try it." She leaned on the dresser in the room, craning her neck. She had spent more than a few evenings trying to keep a guy's hands off of her. Not once did she have to work to get a guy's hands on her. "I wasn't expecting this to be so stressful. It was a simple mission. How the hell did it get so complicated?"

Chuck moved behind her and started massaging her neck. "Hey, you're doing great. Forrest might technically be the boss, but you know Casey, Jimmy, and I would follow you before we'd follow her."

"Mmmm, thanks sweetie. Just wish Forrest would realize we are a good team, Jimmy included."

A thought crossed Chuck's mind. He started working on Sarah's shoulders. "Let me ask you something. Apart from the swimsuit, has Jimmy said anything to the effect of not being able to do anything since he returned?"

Sarah considered the question. "Not really, no. The worst he's done is not taking credit for saving us the other day."

"It seems like when it comes to the job, he's fairly confident. Certainly he's more confident now than he was last year. We got through the encryption with no problem, he sounded very professional in the meeting this morning. Maybe he has changed."

Sarah thought about it for a moment. "I think you're right. He was certainly talking confidently outside of Bambi's, very unafraid. Taking those four men out could not have been any easier. We were completely in sync." She laughed. "I guess we just have to put a mirror up to his face and convince him he doesn't look grotesque. Really, he never did."

"Yeah, but most guys never think they're as attractive as they really are. That or it's the other way around for one or two delusional idiots who think they're God's gift to women. Most guys consider themselves ugly.

Sarah turned around and put her arms around Chuck's neck. "Well, I certainly hope you don't consider yourself ugly. Because you know that's not true."

"Oh, I know," he said, giving Sarah a playful smirk. "I really am God's gift to women."

Sarah laughed and pressed her body into his, kissing him hard. "Mmmm, then I'm glad I have you all to myself to make the other ladies jealous."

She continued to kiss him. "I'm going to go get ready."

"I'll be on the computer setting up the surveillance. Love you, baby."

"Love you, too." She gave him one last kiss and departed for their room.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**11:45 AM**_

Jimmy took a quick look in the mirror. These were something of a compromise. They weren't the knee-length trunks that were popular in many circles these days, but they also weren't the all-revealing briefs Chuck brought to the room. He opted for the aqua blue swimsuit, but he bought a pair of black ones with white piping down the sides just so he had a second option if one of the ladies wore an aqua blue bikini. He didn't think it would be a good idea to wear the same colors. He was lucky he used the outdoor pool at Nellis for exercise in the last few months, so he had enough of a tan where he could be out in the sun for a couple of hours without worrying about sunburn. Just to be on the safe side, he bought a couple of bottles of sunscreen from the hotel, the price of which made his credit card beg for mercy.

Sarah knocked on the door and entered. Jimmy was hoping that his mouth was not agape at seeing Sarah, but his face was too numb to answer that question. Sarah was wearing a two-piece black bikini that showed off every curve on her body. The material stretched sensuously over her soft skin as if the two were fused together. It was the perfect outfit to show off her sapphire eyes, her cascading blonde hair, and a frame that most supermodels would kill for.

"How do I look?"

Jimmy probably would have been better off if Sarah hadn't asked that question, to say nothing about doing a spin in front of him so he got a good look at everything. It took all of his effort to act nonchalant about it.

"Did I say before that you're hot? I really need to apologize for making such a horrible understatement."

Sarah gave a little laugh and smiled at him. One thing about Jimmy had definitely changed: he was more open with the compliments. Perhaps he was afraid of her a year ago or afraid of offending her in some way. Now was a different story. It appeared Chuck was right.

"Thanks. That was very sweet." She walked up to him, standing well inside his personal space, and sized him up. "And I was right; you look gorgeous in that swimsuit. I especially love the color." She placed her hands on his chest, and he flinched.

"Oops, that's what we have to work on, Jimmy. By the pool, you can't flinch like that when I touch you, and you can't be afraid to touch me or Forrest. You have to act like having two women lust after you is a regular occurrence. If the Russians don't buy it, we're going to be in big trouble, and if Forrest thinks you've never done this before, all of us will be answering to Beckman. Just think of it like two actors in a movie. You know, like I'm Linda Fiorentino in _The Last Seduction_ and you're Peter Berg. Or you're Michael Douglas in _Basic Instinct_, and I'm Sharon Stone. It's all an act."

Jimmy looked at her suspiciously. "Uh, you don't have an ice pick with you now, do you? It's pretty safe to say you know how to operate one."

She laughed. "Come on. We have to be ready before Forrest gets here. Let's try again." She held his hand. "Good so far. Easy enough. Let's try this."

She placed her hand on his shoulder, standing close to him while holding on to his upper arm with her other hand. "OK, still good. You're getting this. Let's try a little more contact now."

This time, Sarah took Jimmy's arm out and stepped inside of it, pressing her body against his side.

"OK, and put your arm around my waist." He did, and she placed her hand on his chest again. This time, he didn't flinch. "You're doing great. Everything OK?"

"I'm fine," he replied nervously. Sarah had to smile. Had she not known Jimmy a year ago when he looked so different, she would have thought someone who looked like him was a raving lunatic to be afraid of women being so close to him. She guessed last year that he would be very attractive once he lost the weight and got in shape, but even how he looked now was beyond what she hoped. He didn't have the confident swagger of Bryce or the boyish charm of Chuck, but his introverted personality clashing against a very muscular body made him attractive in its own way. Knowing how much work he went through to become how he looked now made him even more endearing in her book.

"OK, let's step it up a bit. Remember, it's all an act. Play along. You're the one who is supposed to be sexually dominant."

She moved behind him and placed both hands on his chest, one from over his right shoulder, one from under his left arm. She then rested her head on his left shoulder. He still didn't flinch. "Great work. OK, this one is tougher."

Her hands stayed in the same place, but she moved her head so her cheek was up against his, and she pressed her breasts into his back. He still didn't flinch, so she tried rubbing her breasts against his back. He tensed for a half-second but calmed down right away.

"Wonderful! You're doing great, Jimmy." She gave him a kiss just behind his ear. He flinched and pulled away.

"Dammit. Failed there, didn't I." He shook his head, disgusted with himself.

"I tried to throw you a surprise to see if you could handle it."

"I'm sorry. I have to admit being very intimidated by all of this. I've never had to deal with this before, and the first time I have to get close to someone, it's with someone as attractive as you. That's like being afraid of heights one day and jumping out of a plane the next."

"Will you stop worrying about it? You did great. For most guys, the hard part would be staring down a bunch of known killers. That's the one thing I don't have to worry about with you. The intimate part? You can't learn it by reading about it or watching it. You can only learn through experience. Just be patient and stop criticizing yourself so much. Believe me, you'll do just fine."

"I'm guessing you didn't wake up this morning expecting to teach a course in how not to be scared of the opposite sex, did you."

Sarah smiled. "I would hardly call it the most onerous thing I've ever done as a spy."

Jimmy gave her a smile as someone knocked on the door. He went to answer it. Alex Forrest was there, adorned in a red two-piece outfit with a bikini bottom which tied at the side and accented her long legs, which were topped off with matching red pumps with two-inch heels. Her breath caught slightly at seeing Jimmy answer the door but she recovered quickly.

"Are you two ready?"

Jimmy glanced back at Sarah, who indicated she was ready. He turned back to Forrest.

"Let's do this."

He stepped aside to let Sarah exit first, and he followed close behind.

_**Wynn Hotel Pool  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**12:05 PM**_

Sarah, Jimmy, and Alex made their way outside the hotel. Before stepping into an open area, each of them put in an earpiece and checked to see if Chuck and Casey could hear them. Jimmy moved to the middle, and Sarah and Alex looped their arms through his. The three walked to the pool area. Looking around, Jimmy spotted a chaise lounge large enough for all three of them. As they walked to it, they took note of Casey, who was wearing a lime green polo shirt and khaki pants to match the uniform of the servers by the pool. He was serving drinks to several customers lounging by the pool as well.

"Nothing out of the ordinary so far," Forrest reported. "Casey, what about you?"

"Clear so far. No sign of anyone from Kolinova's group."

"Very well."

"There's our spot," Jimmy said, locating the chaise lounge. He looked carefully back and forth between Sarah and Forrest, wondering how they were supposed to sit down. Fortunately, Sarah caught his confusion before Forrest did.

"You get in first and then hold our hands," she whispered to him and walked to the other side of the chaise.

"Ah," he whispered back. The rule of 'ladies first' was a little different this time. He sat in the middle of the chaise and held his hands out. Sarah and Forrest took the hand on their side and eased into the chaise on either side of Jimmy. Casey stopped by, giving a pina colada to Sarah, a daiquiri to Forrest, and a diet cola to Jimmy. Under Jimmy's drink was a note folded to look like a napkin coaster. Jimmy read it.

"There are cameras covering the access points to the pool and there are cameras at our 3 and our 9, according to Casey. Chuck, do you have all of those on your monitor?"

"Got them all. You are well covered."

"Thank you kindly." He looked at Sarah and Forrest. "The exits are covered, so we sit here and look fabulous until they show up?"

"That's the idea," Forrest replied evenly.

Spotting people walking by, Forrest turned on her side, pressing into Jimmy. She ran her fingers lazily along his chest to sell the cover, resting her face against his shoulder. Her foot drifted over Jimmy's leg. He tried the minimal reaction of putting his hand around her shoulder. It appeared to be the right move, given that Forrest immediately snuggled closer to him. Sarah lay back against Jimmy's right side. She took his hand and wrapped it around her waist. Noticing Jimmy's arm suddenly developing goosebumps, she looked and saw where she made a slight mistake. She had rested his hand on her thigh. _Too much too soon_, she thought. She took his hand and slid it up to her shoulder and made a subtle gesture with it. Jimmy took the hint and started massaging her shoulders with his free hand. Chuck was a master at relieving her stress with a good massage, but Jimmy's large, strong hands made him quite respectable in the skill as well. She had to suppress a giggle when she contemplated Casey might also be very skilled in this for the same reason as Jimmy. Between the firefighter's uniform and the thought of Casey giving a good massage, his hotness factor went up a few points in her book.

Jimmy glanced towards a door to his right leading to several restaurants. Three men emerged from it, wearing casual attire. They looked around the pool area as if trying to spot someone.

"Chuck, we have three emerging from the restaurant area near the sportsbook."

Chuck enlarged the camera with the three men on it. He had a flash, seeing Moscow and a bootlegging operation.

"It's Melekhin. He has a couple of hitters with him. But I can't tell if they have any weapons. There are too many people in the way of the cameras."

"On it." Casey walked over to the three men. "May I get you drinks, sirs?"

"Two whiskeys, premium label, and scotch neat," Melekhin answered curtly with a thick Russian accent. They walked away, and Casey gave them a long gaze after they passed by.

"Makarov PM's on each of the thugs."

"OK, this won't be the meeting, then," Forrest answered. She turned to Jimmy. "Push them back to tonight, and Kolinova has to be there in person." Jimmy nodded.

Both Sarah and Forrest began nuzzling Jimmy's neck as Melekhin turned the corner around the pool towards them. Jimmy's eyes remained even and unfazed. He locked on to them as they walked up.

"I believe we have some business to attend to, Mr.?"

"Murdock. Roger Murdock. And I don't know who you are."

"Sergei Kolinova. And I believe we were attempting to make a deal regarding some useful information in your possession?"

Chuck heard the entire conversation over Jimmy's earpiece. "Kolinova is 10 years older, completely bald and 4 inches shorter, according to a photo we have from 2 years ago."

Jimmy regarded Melekhin for a moment. "Good. Now I know who stole Dick Clark's youth pills. You seem almost 10 years younger, and that's a very convincing toupee, Mr. Kolinova. Or perhaps you're lying to me. Right, Mr. Melekhin?"

Sarah watched the conversation go back and forth, trying not to react. If it wasn't so dangerous, it would be borderline hysterical that a nibble on the neck would make Jimmy nervous but two armed Russian assassins didn't even make him blink.

"Still, I think it's time we talked business, Mr. Murdock." The two thugs with Melekhin moved forward. Jimmy slid off the chaise and stood toe-to-toe with Melekhin.

"I've had dealings twice with people related to you. Both of them tried to be greedy and take a shortcut through this. You should thank me; you can officially take them off of your payroll. Now if Mr. Kolinova wants to talk business with me, I'll be in the Platinum Room tonight at 9 PM. If he decides he wants to send another overpaid, under-intelligent lackey, I'll simply move on to the next customer on my list. And then you can explain to him how another person in his organization blew the deal for him. It can't be good for business."

Casey started to make his way around with a tray of drinks. He hid a gun underneath the tray.

"This is not an optional engagement, Mr. Murdock." One of the thugs had his gun out and his back to the camera. Behind Jimmy, Sarah and Forrest were ready to react. Jimmy carefully slid his hand down and gave them the sign to wait. Sarah glanced to her right, and Casey spotted her look. He waited as well.

Jimmy looked between Melekhin and the man holding the gun. His hand snaked out, twisting the wrist of man holding the gun. His other hand bent the man's wrist back, and the gun fell into his hands. He immediately cocked it and pointed it at the other thug without breaking eye contact with Melekhin.

"And put yours on the chair," he replied calmly. The other man was taken by surprise. Sarah watched cautiously for the man to take his gun out and drop it on the chaise. Jimmy motioned with the gun for the second thug to stand next to his partner. Jimmy retrieved the gun from the chaise and ejected the magazines from both. He then pistol-whipped both men, who fell to the ground. He tossed the empty guns at their feet.

"As I said, Mr. Melekhin, 9 PM, Platinum Room. Either your boss talks to me then, or I'll tell your boss you tried to take the files from me and sell them yourself. Of course, that would be a lie, but lies have a way of becoming the truth sometimes. Now if you'll excuse me…"

Jimmy sat back on the chaise. Sarah and Alex made a big show of kissing along his neck and ear and caressing his chest. "The ladies and I were discussing politics."

The two hitmen slowly got up and backed away. Melekhin turned angrily and departed.

Casey joined them as Sarah, Jimmy, and Forrest watched Melekhin and his hired help leave.

"Are they clear, Chuck?" Jimmy asked.

"You're good."

Forrest immediately got up and walked quickly back to the hotel. Sarah and Jimmy looked at her depart, a bit surprised.

"No, really. Walk faster, Alex." Jimmy turned to Sarah. "Did I do something wrong? My hand never went lower than her shoulder blades."

Sarah shrugged. "I don't know. You did everything correctly, as far as I was concerned. Maybe she was upset because she has nothing to pin on you right now."

Jimmy threw his hands in the air. "I give up. Even _**I**_ thought that went without a hitch, especially given that they pulled guns on us. I was a perfect gentleman. I didn't attempt a single disrespectful move."

"Now THAT is something to be upset about."

Jimmy looked at the grinning Sarah with an annoyed smirk on his face. "Are you going to be teasing me like that all weekend?"

"That's the plan." She kissed him on his cheek while giving his other cheek a playful scratch with her nails. He gave her a gentle snarl as he got up, and she gave him a pouty look. He rolled his eyes and offered his hand to help her up, which she graciously accepted. He noticed the look of disgust on Casey's face.

"See, right there. Give me 10 minutes, and my face will look that way, too."

Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy walked upstairs. As they got to the 8th floor, they saw Agent Forrest by her door.

"5 PM," was all she said before entering her room and closing the door. All three of them stared.

"Quite the communicator. Really, she's way too garrulous for my tastes," Jimmy quipped.

Casey headed to his room. "I'll see you at 5. I'm gonna change and scope the Platinum Room."

"Thanks Casey," Sarah replied as Jimmy opened the meeting room door, allowing Sarah to enter first.

"OK, we're on for 9 PM," Chuck said as Sarah and Jimmy entered. "What is with Agent Forrest?"

"I don't know," Sarah replied. "Is she determined to catch us doing something wrong? You would think she'd be doing cartwheels right now since everything is going as well as it could."

Chuck turned towards Jimmy. "By the way, very nice work with that gun. Did the instructors show you that?"

Jimmy looked at them oddly. "Jackie Chan. _Rush Hour_." Chuck and Sarah give him a weird look. "The video collection in the lounge at Nellis could use some updating."

"Well, at least your job is safe for another day."

"I'm lucky. If Sarah and Forrest kept going on like they did at the end, I was going to have some problems."

"Problems?"

"Uh, yeah. Problems."

Chuck was confused. "Problems? Oh, PROBLEMS. Right."

Sarah looked back and forth between Chuck and Jimmy. "What problems?" Suddenly, she figured it out. "Oh, those problems." She tried not to laugh…and failed.

"Gee, thanks Sarah," Jimmy said, falling back on the bed in the room. "Imagine what would have happened if I had worn the Speedos."

Chuck and Sarah couldn't stop laughing. Jimmy covered his reddening face with his hands.

"I'm sorry, Jimmy." Sarah tried to make the apology sincere but couldn't stop laughing about it. "I keep forgetting this is something you've never done before. If it's any consolation, the way you handled yourself out there…"

"I BEG YOU to rephrase that."

"The way you conducted yourself out there, it was easy to forget this is your first mission. You're a natural at this."

Jimmy rose from the bed. If Devon was here, he would have thought Jimmy's blood pressure shot up 200 points from the redness on his face. "I'm gonna take a nap, have a swim, do something. Let me know if you need me for something less humiliating, like being a male gigolo at a nursing home."

He left as Chuck and Sarah continued laughing their heads off.


	7. Going All In and All Out

_Another chapter is now posted. It took a bit of doing, but I hopefully worked out some logical points to the story. I guess you will have to live with the longer chapters. I hope you don't mind. I originally thought this chapter would top out around 4,000 words or so, but clearly I was off a bit on that prediction._

_As always, please leave reviews. Am I getting good at the Charah moments in the story? I did promise more of that. _

* * *

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**1:30 PM**_

"You owe me for this one, missy."

Sarah had her eyes shut, and her voice was almost purring. "Mmmmm, leave me alone. I have to take advantage of it. I already have almost no clothing on, we have a few hours off, and I could use some relaxation. Come on, I need you to finish what Jimmy started."

Sarah was lying on her stomach on the bed in their suite, taking full advantage of Chuck's magical hands as he gave her a massage. This was what she needed after a morning that was full of more tension than it should have been. Fortunately, it worked as well as it could. They were set for a meeting with Kolinova tonight, Alex Forrest had not done anything to exacerbate the situation, and Jimmy was performing far better than they expected.

"You realize they have a phenomenal spa here. You could get a professional to do this."

"But I save money this way. Besides..." Sarah arched an eyebrow. "They'll only massage me up to a point. And unless that's your mobile phone poking me in the thigh, I'd say you're not exactly suffering right now."

Chuck shook his head. She knew him all too well. Even without the obvious telltale signs, she was acutely aware this was one of his favorite activities. He didn't need the new Intersect to teach him how to do this, either. He attended a wellness class on the Stanford campus that taught how to give a massage. At the time, he thought it would be useful in helping Jill relieve stress from her tough academic schedule while they were dating. Needless to say, she appreciated his efforts. He fell out of practice for a few years, but being together with Sarah had given him more than a few opportunities to perfect his craft. Sarah certainly didn't mind loaning herself out to allow him to practice.

Chuck leaned forward, giving her a playful growl behind her ear, and then he started kissing her neck. Her hand instinctively came up and ran through the hair on back of his head, pulling him closer to her.

"Mmmm, baby." She shook her head clear. "Oh, massage first. Kissing later."

"Grrrr. OK, if you insist."

"I do insist, sweetie."

Chuck started massaging the muscles down her spine. "So, be honest. How is Jimmy at giving a massage?"

Sarah grinned but her eyes stayed shut. "Come on. You're not even remotely jealous, are you?"

Chuck paused for a second. "Wait a minute. That's one of those 'trap questions', isn't it. Dammit, what's the right answer?"

Sarah giggled. "Chuck, I promise, I don't have any hidden agenda. I don't have enough experience with relationships to ask trap questions."

He had to laugh. "Well, I have been in the past, haven't I. It's kind of sad I was jealous of some of the men you had to get close to on the job. It seems so stupid now. I blew the damn case with Lon Kirk because of it."

"You didn't blow that. You had the right idea but the wrong boat, that's all. I was harsher with you than I should have been. A lot of that was getting reamed out by both Beckman and Casey."

"But then you believed me when you had no reason to do so. You were wonderful. You were a friend when I needed one."

Sarah reached back and took one of his hands. "Trust me, Chuck. That's the one thing I could always rely on from you: being a good friend."

"Thanks, baby." Chuck leaned forward, his face close to hers. She gently held his jaw while they kissed. He looked deep into her eyes.

"So, how is Jimmy at giving a massage?" He gave her an eyebrow dance, and she laughed hysterically.

"Awww, you know nobody is better at it than you."

He went to work on her arms. "Nice try with the standard girlfriend answer. Even I know that line. Come on, Walker, spill it."

"OK, he's not bad. That might have been the first time he's ever done that, but he certainly has potential. I thought of that at the last second because I figured having him do that would distract him a bit. It would give him something to concentrate on so he wouldn't be so nervous."

"Well, it almost worked."

"What do you mean 'almost'?"

"This is why I can never be jealous of him. Forrest started leaning on him and he had this look on his face like he was a little kid who had to be on stage in a play with his parents in the front row. Then you leaned against him, and he was just about petrified."

She turned her head to look at Chuck. "Petrified?"

Chuck demonstrated by widening his eyes and gritting his teeth.

She smiled. "I didn't see that. I was in front of him and didn't see his face. I thought nothing was wrong."

"He was OK after a minute or two. And when Melekhin showed up, it was like someone flipped a switch and he was all business. When he sent Melekhin on his way, you and Forrest probably could have straddled him and he wouldn't have changed expression."

"I wonder if there's a way we could keep him like that at all times. He'd be the picture of concentration and seriousness."

"I think there's a term for that. It's called Casey."

Sarah's eyes widened slightly. "Oops, good point. One Casey is already one too many."

"I know. Between Forrest and Casey, maybe we need to let Jimmy be goofy to balance it out."

"She is acting very oddly. It doesn't make any sense for her to walk away like she did. Something isn't right."

Chuck started massaging her calves. "I have no idea. But there has to be more going on besides seeing us again. There is definitely something else. She seems almost jumpy."

"I know. She was that way since before we went to the pool. It's…" Sarah stopped and recalled something from earlier. Suddenly a big smile came across her face. "No…"

"What?"

She tried to contain her laughter, but she was losing the battle. "No, forget it. It's too silly to even contemplate."

"Oh, come on. You have to tell me. This sounds too good." Sarah refused to talk, but she couldn't get the huge smile off of her face. Chuck lay on top of her, his hands sliding up to hold her wrists. "Remember, you have 175 pounds on top of you right now, and I know your ticklish spots."

"You wouldn't dare…"

"In a heartbeat, Sarah."

Sarah inwardly growled. Why did she even bring this up? She wasn't even sure if she was right.

"OK, earlier when Forrest met us to go down to the pool, she seemed to stop short when Jimmy answered the door in his swimsuit. Then at the pool, after Jimmy sat back down, she started the whole thing with his neck, and I was just following her lead. And then she gets up like she did. It seems like…"

Chuck's eyes went wide. "She's attracted to Jimmy?" He leaned back and started laughing. "Oh, that is too perfect! She would never live it down if she thought we knew that."

"It does make some sense, though. She didn't leave like that because she was mad at us. She was mad at herself. She probably caught herself enjoying being next to Jimmy and got upset."

"Man, talk about karmic payback. She interferes with our relationship and now she has the hots for someone she's evaluating? Oh, that is going to be tough to keep inside."

"Chuck, we can't say anything to anybody. You know that."

"Yeah, I know," he said, more than a little disappointed. "She would totally deny it, and Jimmy's under enough pressure already without this. Wow. Some of the ice in her freezer is actually melting. Who would have guessed?"

"If nothing else, it certainly makes this weekend a lot more interesting. We're really going to have to keep on our toes now."

Chuck's hands returned to work on Sarah's neck. He lowered the tone of his voice in that way that always turned Sarah on. "Then I should definitely give you the full massage. Make sure you're nice and relaxed. That way, you're prepared for anything that happens."

"Mmmmm, true." She turned over and sat up slightly, wrapping her arms around Chuck and kissing him. "But both of us need something to help us relax." She took his shirt off and pulled him down to her.

Chuck returned the kiss. "Yeah, that'll work, too." Chuck certainly couldn't argue with her. After all, she was the more experienced field agent.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**3:45 PM**_

Jimmy had to admit Chuck was right: he did need to learn how to relax and enjoy himself. A tightly-wound coil would not even begin to describe how much tension he carried around. The trouble was, he didn't know how to relax. He never took a vacation in his entire life. Either he couldn't afford it in his youth, or he had no idea where to take one. You really do need someone else to take with you on a vacation. He gave some thought to going over to the spa and see if there was a package guys could purchase, but he couldn't get his mind off of the meeting in just over an hour to prepare for tonight. He still wasn't sure what had Forrest upset. She wanted the meeting pushed back, and it was. He even managed to stop those two thugs without forcing anybody else to make a move. If anything, he figured doing that only enhanced his cover as someone Kolinova shouldn't trifle with.

It wasn't perfect, though. He had problems with the one part that was actually under the team's control. He tried to take Sarah's advice and treat Sarah and Forrest being with him as if they were actors in a movie. Unfortunately, he was still too nervous and was lucky not to tip anybody off. It felt silly that virtually any other guy on this planet would consider themselves fortunate to have two such beautiful women all over them, even if it was an act. But to him, it just made matters worse. It was amusing how he excelled at so many different skills yet failed at the one thing the average person has figured out by prom night in high school. He never saw James Bond get nervous seeing Honey Ryder emerge from the ocean.

Chuck walked through the casino and spotted Jimmy sitting at the bar. He went over to him.

"Z1?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah, Z3?" Jimmy smiled. Clearly, Chuck watched one or two of the same kids' shows he did in his youth.

Chuck got a drink from the bartender, and Jimmy got his refilled. They moved to a table well away from the other patrons.

"I talked with Casey a little while ago," Jimmy said. "He'll give us a full report on the Platinum Room at 5. Nothing of major concern, but we'll have to plan accordingly. You might need more time to hack the security system for the casino floor. That's more secure than the exterior surveillance. Can't have people hacking in and looking at everybody's cards, now can you. I might be able to help with that."

"Good, thanks." Chuck paused for a second, trying to take in the environment. "This is always the hard part for me: the waiting. You know there's nothing to do until the mission or a meeting about the mission, but you can't get your mind on anything else."

"Actually, I was going to ask you about that. I've been sitting here for the last hour and change trying to get my mind off of things. Needless to say, I was not successful. I've been going over and over in my mind everything that happened at the pool."

"I do the same thing. I think I picked that up from Sarah. But in our cases, we do that when something goes wrong. You look like you're getting overworked when everything went right."

"I don't know. It just didn't feel like everything went right. I handled Melekhin fine, I thought. But I was still too nervous. I hope nobody noticed it."

"Nobody you have to worry about. Casey was on the other side of the pool, and I don't think Forrest picked up on it."

"Still, I wish I knew what is ticking her off. I sure as hell don't want my first mission going wrong without at least knowing why."

Chuck was beyond tempted to tell Jimmy that Forrest might be attracted to him, but he knew Jimmy would just freak out. From what Chuck could gather, this was the first time Jimmy had been out socially since starting training. He may not have had as much as a weekend off since Chuck saw him last. Setting aside the fact that they were pursuing criminals who have tried to kill them already, Jimmy wasn't even aware of, let alone experienced in, women being attracted to him. And the one Chuck knew about, he was forced to admit, was a very attractive individual. Jimmy ran into the romantic equivalent of being up to the plate in the World Series without ever having picked up a bat in his life.

"Whatever it is, I doubt it has anything to do with you. Aside from being about 30 seconds late to a meeting, and that was only because you thought it was full business attire, you've done everything right so far. The training you've done has clearly paid off. You just have to stop worrying and relax."

"'Stop worrying and relax.' Yeah, I think there's a better chance of Casey going down to an animal shelter and adopting a puppy." He shook his head with a disbelieving chuckle. "How did you handle it when all of this craziness started for you?"

Chuck thought for a minute and then smiled. "I don't know. Sometimes I think it was just pure luck. I'm on what I thought was a date with Sarah. The next thing I know, I'm in a high-speed chase, and then I'm sitting face-to-face with a bomb that was about to blow up an entire hotel."

Jimmy's eyes widened. "Holy crap!"

"Obviously it turned out fine. I crashed the computer controlling the bomb and that was all she wrote. It took a long time and the road was pretty bumpy, to say the least. But somehow, it all worked out."

"To say the least, yeah. That trumps the hell out of anything I did. I didn't have to defuse a bomb on my first day."

"What are you talking about? You don't think 20 enemy agents trying to kill us and capture you isn't pressure-packed? We thought we had to protect you, but you ended up surprising the hell out of us. I mean, anything you do now doesn't shock us, but that first day, there's no way we could have predicted you diving off that hotel and crashing through that window with us hanging on to you. On the list of crazy things that have ever happened to me, that's pretty high up."

"Those were a wild two weeks, I'll admit. But thanks to you, Sarah, and Casey, I survived them. Hopefully, I can make good use of this second chance you've given me."

Chuck shook his head. "Sarah's right. You need a healthy dose of arrogance. I mean, you certainly don't hate yourself as much as you used to, and that's a lot of progress right there. But you better be ready for what's coming. You don't have the luxury anymore of anyone underestimating you. People are going to take you a lot more seriously now. And the women are certainly going to take a long look at you."

Jimmy started laughing his head off. "Yeah, right."

"Dude, they already are. You haven't noticed it? I've seen a few of them give you a lot more than a passing glance since we've been here."

"Come on. In just one year, I've done a complete 180 from being woman repellent to being Tyson Beckford? Yeah, I'm sure there are women out there who are hot for me."

Chuck tried not to smile. If only he knew they were much closer than he realized. "Oh, you'd be surprised. It can happen when you least expect it. You never really know who you'll end up with."

Jimmy looked at him for a moment. "OK, on that point, I sure as hell can't argue with you."

"You know, I get the feeling I was just insulted."

Jimmy had a huge grin on his face. "Ah, you shouldn't be so uncertain of such things. You were definitely insulted."

Chuck made a face at him and Jimmy laughed. The two of them headed back upstairs.

"I gather you found something to occupy your time earlier before coming down here," Jimmy said as they headed for the elevators.

"Uh, yeah. Sarah and I did, you could say that."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Why did I even open my mouth?"

"Hey, it's partially your fault. Sarah insisted I finish the massage you started and it snowballed from there."

"Oh, great. Now I'm a sex aid. Do I run on batteries or do I have to be plugged in?"

"We SO need to end this conversation now."

"Right?" The elevator opened and they took it to the 8th floor.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**5:00 PM**_

Jimmy learned his lesson from this morning. He had been in the room for 15 minutes. He wasn't going to be late twice today, even if the first time had to be measured with a stopwatch. He checked the decrypting of the files to occupy his time. They still needed a few more hours. They would likely be fully decrypted by the time they returned from the Platinum Room tonight.

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey entered the room. Casey was looking over several pages of notes he took while in the Platinum Room earlier. Jimmy knew one or two of the things Casey would report, but he expected Casey to have a lot more information that what he already knew. You could always count on Casey to do a thorough job of surveillance.

Forrest was the last to enter the room. In a bit of a contrast from this morning, she was the one who was a bit more dressed up, although a white blouse and black slacks hardly qualified as formal attire. Jimmy also noticed her hair was not in a ponytail like it was this morning. He may not have given that any thought had Chuck not put the idea in his head a little while ago that women might find him attractive now. Even though she was his boss for the mission and still had a no-nonsense air to her, Jimmy had to concede, from an empirical standpoint, Alex Forrest was a striking woman. The combination of dark blonde hair and greenish-blue eyes would certainly drive any sane man to do just about anything to be with her. However, Chuck and Sarah tended to dance very carefully around saying anything else about her. Jimmy had the feeling that he may want to trust them and not give Forrest a second thought. Besides, he undoubtedly proved earlier today he wouldn't know what to do with a woman if one actually was interested in him.

"I just checked the progress with the accounts," Jimmy said to open the meeting. "The decryption should be done later tonight. Perhaps by 10 or 11."

"Very well." Forrest gave a clipped response. "Colonel Casey, what can you tell us about the room?"

"There are 4 gaming tables are set up at all times. Two of them are generally used for blackjack, one is used for poker, and one is set up for poker by default, but they can change it to blackjack or baccarat if needed. They also have a roulette wheel and a craps table, but those are typically unmanned unless someone makes a request to open them. According to the schedule, nobody has for tonight. There are security cameras over each table plus cameras at each corner of the room. There is usually a doorman standing guard at the main entrance when the room is occupied. The person on-duty tonight checks out. Ex-Marine, spotless record. There is also a small bar in the room with a dozen or so stools, no doubt for people who want to watch the action. The on-duty floor manager makes the occasional visit to the room, just to emphasize the 'personal service' the high rollers are supposed to get."

Sarah jumped in. "To be on the safe side, we should have our own cameras looking in to give us angles the overhead cameras may not."

"Good suggestion, Agent Walker," Forrest replied. "Do we have appropriate ones available?"

"We have a dozen such cameras, all of which can be used in this situation," Chuck answered.

"Can you hack the security system inside the casino?"

"It's a different system than the outside cameras, but Agent Murdock has some information on the system that may be of use."

Forrest turned toward Jimmy. "How were you able to obtain that?"

Sarah looked pensively towards Jimmy, wondering what he would say. She still wasn't sure how Jimmy knew anybody at this hotel apart from his almost dismissive explanation earlier.

"As far as the hotel is concerned, they know me as a security expert and a financial executive. I was here a few months back doing some freelance work for them. My work then helped me establish some credibility within their management structure, and I was able to obtain some limited information on their systems. Hopefully, it will be enough for Chuck to work his magic."

Forrest let that sink in for a moment. Sarah tried to get a read on her, but Forrest was too good at maintaining a neutral expression to let show what she was thinking. Jimmy revealed no more information than she already knew, so what Jimmy really did to get the hotel bending over backwards for him was still a mystery.

"Agent Bartowski, you'll work with Agent Murdock to get into the system. Once you're in, work as before in keeping an eye on things. Colonel Casey, were you able to secure a position to do surveillance tonight?"

"I have it covered," Casey replied.

"Agent Walker, you and I will work as we did today. This time, since we won't be able to sit close to Murdock, we'll make ourselves a bit more mobile, perhaps let a few of the guests flirt with us if we think they have any pertinent data and make it easier to identify anybody in Kolinova's group. Agent Murdock, get the deal made with Kolinova. Once we make the exchange, we'll track his movements and have his group apprehended when they attempt to leave and turn them over to the Russians. Let's get going."

Sarah, Casey, and Forrest departed. Chuck and Jimmy went to the computer to set up the link into the casino's security system.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**8:15 PM**_

It was funny as hell when Jimmy thought about it. His instructors constantly told him this job was nothing like what people saw in the movies. No fancy gadgets, no vodka martinis, none of that. Yet here he was, dressing in a tuxedo, ready to go downstairs to a ritzy casino to play cards against a dangerous individual, and he would be escorted down by two incredibly gorgeous women. That was in more than a few spy movies, as he recalled. Perhaps he needed to work on developing a Scottish accent.

Then again, he never heard of James Bond having trouble with a bow tie.

Jimmy found an online video that gave a good demonstration on how to tie one. Unfortunately, this would be the 10th time he's had to redo it. Every time he pulled the one end through the loop, it came loose. Granted, he had no previous experience, as this was the first time he ever wore a tuxedo. But he would certainly like to get it right. It would be a long evening, and they didn't really have much information to go on. It wouldn't be good to screw up the easy stuff.

There was a knock on the door, and he went to answer it. He opened the door to find Sarah looking her usual drop-dead gorgeous self. She was wearing a shimmering silver gown with a single off-the-shoulder strap. Her hair was up, set in place with a silver-jeweled ornamental hairpin, and she had a small matching silver purse. Just like this morning, Jimmy was suddenly having difficulty forming complete sentences.

"OK, I'm guessing you approve of my attire," Sarah said with a huge smile on her face as she entered.

"Well, the way you look, I'd have to agree with what John Cusack said to Ione Skye when he picked her up for the graduation party in _Say Anything_."

"What was that?"

"Whoah."

Sarah laughed. "Is it not enough for you to say 'I look beautiful' or 'That dress looks phenomenal'? You have to put considerable effort into thinking of something out of the ordinary?"

"Just matching the compliment to the look."

"Thank you." Sarah fixed his tie in mere seconds.

"And thank you. I've been trying to get this damn thing right for the last half-hour."

"I've been to more than my fair share of formal occasions. Just a habit I have. I think I drive Chuck up a wall whenever I try to adjust his tie, whether he got it right or not."

Jimmy smiled and checked himself in the mirror. He put on his jacket and adjusted his collar. Sarah looked at him in the mirror. Jimmy paused and suddenly dropped his hands to his sides.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked.

Jimmy gestured toward his own image in the mirror. "I don't know. It still doesn't look like me. It's feels like I'm looking at a complete stranger. That sounds a little silly, doesn't it?"

"On the contrary, it makes complete sense. It took me a long time through college and my first years in the CIA to be comfortable with how I looked."

Jimmy turned to her with an amused smirk. "You're not going to try and tell me again that you weren't beautiful at some point, are you? You know what my response will be."

"No, it's just that I looked so different back then. It was a lot like what you're going through now. It felt like everything flew by in an instant. Suddenly, I'm going from being teased and ridiculed in school to risking my life for this country. When I started this job, I felt the satisfaction from being in control of my life for the first time. I was doing something positive. I didn't even care about the things I had to do to accomplish a mission. If I had to kill someone, go to bed with them, steal from them, it didn't matter."

"But then you came here."

Sarah nodded. "And then I came here. I certainly never expected everything to change when I came out here on what seemed like a simple mission. Get information on the Intersect. I was pretty much a machine by that point. Nobody really cared about me, and I had no problem with that. But then that damn Chuck…"

Jimmy smiled. "Yeah, he does get under your skin."

"He made me start questioning everything. He was always there, always someone I could rely on. I never realized anybody could love me like he did. I never knew you could have family and friends like I do now. Everything I have now made all of the work and the sacrifices and even all of the times people betrayed me in the past well worth it."

"You certainly won't get any argument from me. But you deserve every bit of good fortune you get. You always have this look like you consider yourself lucky you're with someone like Chuck. And he has the exact same feelings toward you. I don't know. I mean, what I know about romance you could fit on a Post-It note and only need the sticky section to write it. But it seems to me when you don't take the person you're in love with for granted, you can make it last forever if you wanted to. And both of you do that. Hell, we should all be so lucky in life."

Sarah smiled and hugged Jimmy tightly. "And this is why I knew I was right about you, even when you didn't. I knew you were an intelligent and amazing person, and I couldn't let you give up on yourself. We trusted you, treated you like you deserved to be treated, and look at you now."

She turned Jimmy back towards the mirror. "This is the real you. That caring, sweet, talented man who wouldn't betray or abandon us. You earned what you see in front of you. You deserve to have it. Believe me, that is you right there."

Jimmy put his arm around her shoulders and she held him at the waist. "Thanks, Sarah. I wouldn't have this without what you and Chuck did."

"Thanks, Jimmy." She hugged him tighter and rested her head against him. He gave a little laugh.

"What is it?"

Jimmy pointed to both of their images in the mirror. "What I wouldn't give to get a picture of that and send it to all of those kids in school that teased me and beat me up. Talk about the ultimate revenge."

Sarah laughed. "Actually, we should make two copies of that picture. I know quite a few people from school I'd like to send that to as well."

"Oh, come on. You could have done that long ago with Chuck. The two of you together is the stuff holiday stories are made of."

"True, but our picture says 'cute couple'. You have more of a dangerous look to you. You and I in a picture could be the makings of a James Bond movie poster."

"Given that you can probably still kick my ass, I think you'd get top billing on that one."

"Mmm, I don't know. You've improved a lot since last year."

Jimmy laughed as someone knocked on the door. He went to answer it. Alex Forrest was waiting for them. Forrest chose a black form-fitting dress with narrow shoulder straps and a low-cut bodice adorned with a red-and-black brooch. The hip-hugging dress ended with a dangerously short skirt containing a slit up the middle. Jimmy figured that would give Forrest easy access to her gun, undoubtedly held in place by a garter on her thigh. Either that or perhaps she thought Catherine Trammell was a widely misunderstood movie character.

Like last time, it took Forrest a split second to get her bearings after seeing Jimmy in his tuxedo, only this time Sarah spotted it right away. If Sarah thought Forrest was attracted to Jimmy before, Forrest's outfit and her hesitation for the second time confirmed she was right. Forrest was going all out more than was needed for this evening. Fortunately for all involved, Jimmy still appeared to be oblivious to Forrest's efforts. If he realized it, he was putting on a good act of not noticing.

"OK, ready to go." Forrest walked back out into the hall. Sarah walked to the door and stood by Jimmy.

"You have to admit, she cleans up pretty good," Jimmy said. Sarah had to agree with that. Sarah might know why Forrest was doing it, but it was probably best to keep that to herself.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 18, 2010  
**__**8:45 PM**_

The elevator opened on the main floor of the hotel. Jimmy walked out with Sarah and Forrest on each arm. The three made their way over to the Platinum Room. They stopped just before the room in an alcove out of sight of everybody. Forrest handed Sarah and Jimmy an earpiece.

"Bartowski was able to hack into the surveillance system, and Casey should be in place."

"OK," Jimmy replied. He inserted the earpiece and checked the camera disguised as one of the buttons on his shirt. "Microphone check, Chuck?"

"Roger, Roger. You on the case, Casey?"

"Ahhh, shut up."

Sarah suppressed a giggle and Forrest ignored the conversation. The three walked to the Platinum Room door. Jimmy handed the doorman a business card, and the doorman pulled back the velvet rope, nodding reverently to them as they walked in. The blackjack table was in full swing with 5 players around it. Jimmy escorted Sarah and Forrest to the bar area in a location where they could see the entire room. He then sat at the poker table in a location that faced the door and had only the bar behind him. As he settled in, Casey approached in the gold vest and black tie uniform that was standard for servers in the room.

Jimmy nodded to the three other people seated at the table, all of whom had various amounts of chips in front of them. A pit boss walked up to the dealer and handed him a slip of paper. The dealer turned to Jimmy.

"What denominations of chips would you like, Mr. Murdock?"

"Half in ones, split the rest in fives and tens."

Behind him, Forrest looked rather amused that Jimmy thought the stakes were that low. Then the dealer placed two trays of chips in front of Jimmy.

"Quarter-million, sir. Good luck to you." Forrest ordered a diet soda and placed it at Jimmy's table. She turned her head away from everybody and leveled her lips at Jimmy's ear.

"Where did you get that?" Forrest whispered. She then tilted her neck to pretend like she wanted Jimmy to kiss her there.

"It's mine. Beckman unlocked a few accounts I had. Just don't tell the IRS."

Forrest kept the same smile on her face as before and walked back to the bar. She faced the bar, and Sarah's well-trained eye knew that Forrest was not happy with whatever Jimmy said.

"A quarter of a million dollars and it's all his money? What is going on here?"

"I have no idea. But if he really has the money, then that's better than using accounts that could be traced back to the CIA. After what happened earlier today, we should grant him a little leeway."

It was the best answer Sarah could come up with to make Forrest agree. Vouching for Jimmy any more than that would let Forrest know Chuck and Sarah had known him for much longer than 3 days.

"Blinds are $1,000 and $2,000," the dealer announced. Jimmy threw in a chip as the small blind, and the cards were dealt. Sarah took a slow walk around the bar, pretending to be social with the other patrons.

"Anything, Chuck?" Sarah turned her head away from the room to whisper the question.

"Nothing so far. I haven't identified anybody."

"Kolinova might be putting a few warm bodies in place. Watch for weapons, scars on the face, bulges in the suits, and so on."

"Will do."

Sarah walked back to Jimmy as he collected his winning chips after picking up two pair on the draw of the river card. She got close to his ear.

"Clear so far. Have you seen anything?" Jimmy gave a quick shake of his head, and Sarah returned to her seat at the bar.

Jimmy won his fourth hand out of 6 played and was currently up $20,000. He glanced at the door to see Sergei Kolinova walk in with two bodyguards.

"OK, kids. It's showtime," Jimmy muttered quietly to everyone. Casey delivered a drink to a patron at another table.

"Kolinova's clean, his muscle is packing Glock G19's," Casey whispered as he walked away to another table.

"They wouldn't make a move in there, would they?" Chuck asked from the computer.

"Not likely, but Kolinova may try to get Murdock somewhere unsecure."

Kolinova sat at the poker table opposite of Jimmy. "You must be the famous Mr. Murdock."

"I guess famous would depend on who you talk to, Mr.?"

"Sergei Kolinova. And I must acknowledge you are correct. It is much better to cut through the red tape and see you face to face."

"Feel free to play a hand or two if you like, Mr. Kolinova."

"This is Hold-Em Poker, I gather?" Jimmy nodded at Kolinova's question. "Then, Mr. Murdock, would you object to raising the stakes? $10,000 and $20,000 blinds?"

Jimmy tried his best not to flinch and to continue blinking. He wasn't expecting to put every dime he had on the table, but he didn't think anybody would take him seriously in this room unless he acted like he belonged. It was time to see if all that online poker he played would pay off.

"Certainly." Jimmy threw in the big blind, and the cards were dealt. He drew a King-Queen off-suit. Kolinova called and raised $20,000, and Jimmy called. Jimmy picked up a Queen on the flop. Kolinova bet $25,000, which Jimmy called. Both checked on the turn card, which didn't help Jimmy's hand. Kolinova bet $20,000 on the river card, which Jimmy re-raised an additional $20,000. Kolinova called and raised another 20, and Jimmy called it.

"Pair of Queens, Jack kicker," Kolinova announced as he laid down his hole cards. Jimmy nonchalantly laid down his cards.

"Pair of Queens with a King high," the dealer announced. "Mr. Murdock wins." Jimmy tried not to smile, even though he just pulled in another $125,000. Sarah and Forrest played their "date" roles to perfection by overdoing applause for Jimmy, although Sarah had to admit she wasn't completely acting.

Kolinova quietly cursed in Russian. "I must say, Mr. Murdock, you are rather skilled." Kolinova studied Jimmy as he organized his chips and the dealer shuffled the cards. "I gather you were able to use your skills to get what I was looking for?"

"Indeed," Jimmy replied, trying to keep his voice neutral. "Of course, for what I have, I would expect fair compensation. 250 was the number I had in mind."

"I find that rather insulting, Mr. Murdock."

"I found it rather insulting that you took this long to deal with me directly, so you can consider the extra 50 to be for my considerable annoyance at dealing with your lower-tier employees."

"50 is my one and only offer," Kolinova replied with a steadily-rising anger.

Jimmy was doing his best to keep his voice in check. "That's funny. Now it sounds like I'm the one being insulted. Of course, I have several clients who would beat that number easily, and they would actually wine and dine me instead of trying to strongarm me."

Kolinova glanced to his left. He looked at one of his bodyguards, who quickly glanced to his right. Unfortunately, there were 6 or 7 people the bodyguard could have looked at. Most were either watching or playing blackjack. One person was on their mobile phone. The bodyguard turned back to Kolinova, who turned back to Jimmy.

"100."

"200," Jimmy replied. "I feel a little less insulted now."

"150."

Jimmy stared at him for a long moment. "A bird in the hand. 150 it is."

"How do I know I'm getting a good product?"

"You'll get a free sample to verify it's legitimate."

"Very well. And now that business is over, let us toast our new agreement. I have a table at this exclusive club. You should join me."

"Mmmm, I don't know. The ladies might be disappointed. I had a booth reserved at Tabu for later. But perhaps I can convince them to go out."

Kolinova raised an eyebrow. "You let them make the decisions?"

"It's 2010, Sergei. They've been running the world for some time now. Gotta get with the program." Jimmy turned to the dealer. "Have these chips placed on my account. Keep $25,000 for yourself. Give $10,000 to each bartender and server."

"Very kind of you, Mr. Murdock."

"Don't mention it." Jimmy got up and walked to the bar. Sarah and Forrest huddled with him.

"You saw the bodyguard look to someone in the crowd?" Forrest asked.

"Yeah, but I couldn't tell who. There were a lot of people over there. It could have been any of them."

"Chuck, did you recognize anybody?" Sarah asked.

"Sorry, no. I got a good look at everybody, but none of them stood out."

"Casey might be right. They might be trying to get me alone," Jimmy theorized.

"We'll have to play it out," Forrest said. "Casey, follow us wherever we go."

"No problem," Casey whispered as he served the last drink on his tray.

Jimmy turned back to Kolinova. Sarah and Forrest each grabbed Jimmy's arm and plastered excited looks on their faces.

"I think we have some time tonight, Mr. Kolinova."

"Excellent. I have a limo outside. I'll have them call it up."

"We'll meet you outside in a few minutes."

Kolinova got up from the table and departed the room. Sarah, Jimmy, and Forrest paused for a moment to see if anybody departed at the same time, but nobody did. They left the room and walked towards the main entrance. Sarah took out her mobile phone and pretended to talk on it.

"Chuck, keep a trace on our signals and get Casey to our location quickly."

"You got it," Chuck replied.

Sarah, Jimmy, and Forrest walked outside the main entrance to the hotel. A limousine pulled up, and Kolinova emerged from the back of it. "This way."

Jimmy allowed Sarah and Forrest to enter first. His buttonhole camera caught a glimpse of the limousine's license plate as he waited for everyone to get in. Chuck got a look at the Nevada license tag. He flashed, seeing a fleet of tanks and a specialized weapons training facility. Jimmy entered the car, and the door closed.

"Sarah, Roger, Agent Forrest. The limousine is from Gibson-Tasker Services. They make specialized limousines for security. That might be a limousine that can jam communications signals. They…"

The cameras on Sarah, Jimmy, and Forrest changed to static, and Chuck could not hear anything over their earpieces. In the limousine, Forrest leaned over toward Jimmy as if to kiss him. She used Jimmy's face to shield hers.

"Bartowski, come in," she whispered. "Bartowski!"

Casey quickly walked through the kitchen area of the hotel. He shedded his vest and black tie. He found the employee's entrance and went outside. He ran into the two thugs that were with Melekhin by the pool.

"They must work you to death in there," one of the thugs said with a slightly mocking tone.

Casey tried to maintain his cover. "Well, gotta pay the bills, right? Now if you'll excuse me, the wife is waiting."

The same man held him in place. "You will be a little late tonight."

Chuck was in a full-blown panic in the hotel room. He heard Casey's situation over his earpiece.

_Dammit! What do I do here?_ He bolted out of the room.

Chuck sprinted out of the hotel entrance and jumped into the first taxi, surprising the half-dozen people waiting in line by the taxi stand.

"Here's $200 for you if you get this thing moving south on Las Vegas Boulevard!" The driver floored it. Fortunately, the insane amount of traffic on the Strip on a Saturday night caught the limousine. Chuck spotted the limousine turning west off of the Strip at Flamingo Road and told the taxi driver to make the same turn. He watched the limousine turn into a nightclub parking lot. He exited the taxi a block away from the club and slowly walked down the street.

Sarah, Jimmy, Forrest, and Kolinova exited the limousine. Kolinova led the way into the club.

"They know me here. They give me a room in the back." He led them to the back of the club. Sarah could hear something over her earpiece. She dropped back behind Jimmy and Forrest to listen without drawing attention to herself.

"Chuck? Chuck? I can barely hear anything."

Chuck slipped around the side of the club. "Sarah, I think the two thugs from earlier found Casey at the back of the hotel, and I lost your signal when you got into the limo."

"Stay in the hotel," Sarah commanded. "Don't even think of trying to come get us. Try to find Casey."

"Uh, about that. I'm actually…" Chuck never finished the sentence as he heard the sound of a gun being cocked behind him.

"Chuck? Chuck!" Sarah's eyes widened with fear as they entered a back room in the club. The doors closed behind them. A half-dozen men were inside the room with guns drawn.

"And now, let us renegotiate the price of those files, Mr. Murdock."

Jimmy looked at him with a bemused expression. "You don't seriously believe I have the files with me, do you?"

"Of course not. The limousine will take you to get the files. And just to be on the safe side, your girlfriends stay here with me. You have one hour to bring the files here. Otherwise, I'm sure you are smart enough to know how this works if you fail."


	8. The Decision Making Process

_This chapter didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to write. We are starting the second half of the story. This will likely end up with 11 chapters. I did leave you on something of a cliffhanger in the last one, and there will be some cliffhanger-like elements in this one, too. A little bit of angst in this one, or at least as angsty as I get in my stories._

_As always, reviews are welcome._

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Wynn Hotel  
September 18, 2010  
10:00 PM

Casey felt frustration like this on the job a few too many times. His earpiece picked up what was happening to everybody else. The rest of the team was being held at gunpoint, and he was in the same predicament, having two of Kolinova's guards put two and two together and remember him from the pool earlier that day. Sarah, Slade, and Forrest knew they could have been walking into a trap. However, they had to go forward and let it be sprung on them. Unfortunately, Chuck was now in trouble as well. The hell with Chuck trying to find him: he never should have left the hotel room. Sarah and Casey had arguments concerning Chuck walking into a known dangerous situation before, but the two would probably agree in this case that Chuck never should have gone to get those three. Chuck's reason better be that there were more people in trouble. If it was what Casey thought it was, he would tear him a new one.

Assuming he could get away from the two Ivans in front of him, of course.

"Let's go." One of the thugs motioned with his gun, and Casey walked forward. The man with his gun out walked behind Casey while the other led them towards the parking garage. Casey kept the man behind him in his peripheral vision. The man was keeping a few feet back from Casey. Casey slowed his pace gradually. The man behind him moved up a few steps, ready to prod Casey with the gun. Suddenly, Casey spun, grabbed the man's wrist with his left hand, and landed a right hook on his chin. The man's head snapped to the side, but he recovered. However, Casey used the distraction to smash the man's wrist on his knee and knocked the gun out of the man's hand. He kicked the gun far away. He immediately kicked behind him into the back of the knee of the man in front of him, who fell to the ground. The man threw a haymaker at Casey, but Casey ducked out of the way. The man on the ground pulled out his gun, but Casey gave him a kick to the face. The man fell back, and Casey tried to snatch the gun. Casey was grabbed from behind by the other man, and his back cracked from the bear hug the much larger thug had on him. Casey raised his arms and boxed the ears of the man holding him. His grip loosened slightly, and Casey snapped his head back, breaking the man's nose. Reacting to the pain and being temporarily blinded, the man threw Casey towards a dumpster. Casey landed on a broken chair sitting next to the dumpster, and the impact broke the chair into more pieces.

Casey rolled back and forth, trying to get back up in spite of the pain. He held on to one of the broken legs of the chair. The thug who threw him approached in a rage bad enough to tear Casey's limbs off. He grabbed Casey by the lapels of his shirt and lifted him high into the air. Casey swung hard, and the chair leg connected with the side of the man's head. He dropped Casey and staggered to the side. Casey landed on his feet this time, and he kicked at another leg of the chair. The chair leg broke off, and Casey grabbed it. Swinging both chair legs like Escrima sticks, he went on the attack, landing shot after shot at the man, the chair legs flying fast enough to make a Hall of Fame drummer proud. A hard swing across the man's face, and he collapsed to the ground. The second man went at Casey, but Casey put the two chair legs together, holding them like a baseball bat. He gave a hard smash to the second man, who promptly went down.

Casey defiantly threw down the chair legs at the two still bodies. He then looked back at the chair and quietly chuckled.

"Elvis was right. If you can't find a partner, use a wooden chair."

He sprinted for his car.

_**Flamingo Road  
September 18, 2010  
10:15 PM**_

Sarah, Jimmy, and Alex Forrest were surrounded by a half-dozen armed men. Kolinova stood among them with an impatient look on his face. Sarah tried to mask her worry, knowing Chuck was being held outside at gunpoint as well. She had one idea. However, it depended on whether Jimmy's acting skills had improved since this morning.

"You son of a bitch!" Sarah turned towards Jimmy and slapped him hard across the face. Jimmy was shocked.

"I've had it with you!" Sarah launched into a full-fledged tirade at Jimmy. "You have to go around flaunting yourself like the playboy of Vegas! You're going to throw me out like some piece of property just to cut a deal with this Russian bastard! Why don't you just go back to that skank you used to date while you're at it!"

Jimmy wasn't sure where she's going with this, but he tried to play along. "Are you out of your mind? I'd never go back to that bitch!"

"Oh really? Then why is her number on your phone? That whore, Jenny? You haven't talked to her in a year, and now she wants you to just fly to New York and meet up with her?"

Jimmy tried not to change expression, but he got the clue he was looking for. "You know, I'm sick and tired of you accusing me of that bullshit! You want me to call her right now and tell her I'm not interested? I'll do it!"

Sarah fished into her purse and took out a mobile phone. "Here! Use my phone!" She slapped the phone into Jimmy's hand.

"Oh, I can just use my phone. This piece of crap phone you gave me probably won't even get a signal in here." Jimmy pulled out his own mobile phone.

"What is going on here?" Kolinova grew even more aggravated.

"I'll be with you in a minute," Jimmy tersely replied. "Keep your panties on. You'll get your goddamn files."

Jimmy quietly flipped a switch on the side of the phone Sarah handed him. Forrest looked over the whole situation with a slowly building anger.

"What are you two doing?" she whispered crossly to Jimmy. "What is all of this?"

Jimmy dialed (212) 867-5309 on his phone hit Send. He turned to her. "All of this is when covering your eyes would be an outstanding career move."

Sarah's mobile phone began to ring. Jimmy tossed the phone in the air and turned around, covering his eyes. Sarah did the same, and Forrest caught on. She turned around and ducked down as well, covering her eyes.

The flash grenade in the phone went off, and everybody in the room was blinded. Sarah turned and bolted for the door with Jimmy and Forrest right on her heels. The door opened, and Sarah delivered a roundhouse kick at the first person who entered. Jimmy pulled open the other door and landed a hard jab at a second person coming in. Forrest landed a shot at one of the blinded thugs who tried to come at them. The three bolted out of the club.

Sarah looked up and down the street to locate Chuck. She talked into her radio.

"Chuck, are you there? Chuck?"

She turned to Jimmy. "They must have him somewhere. They have to be close; I talked to him only 5 minutes ago."

"Let me see if my phone can trace his signal." As Jimmy programmed his phone, Forrest spotted Melekhin pulling Kolinova out of the club and towards a waiting car.

"Kolinova and Melekhin are getting away. Let's go."

Jimmy's phone beeped. "His signal is right here somewhere. It's about 100 feet down the alley."

Forrest was getting upset. "Murdock, get after them. That's an order."

Jimmy looked back and forth between the alley where Chuck was located and the departing Kolinova. He hesitated. He then turned toward the alley, leaving Forrest burning mad. Forrest went towards the parking lot.

Jimmy slid his way down the alley outside the club. In the distance, he could see about a dozen men standing around. He checked his phone and confirmed Chuck's signal coming from that location. Sarah slipped in behind him.

"Come on, let's go," Sarah whispered. Jimmy stopped her.

"You can't go after him. They'll spot you a mile away in that outfit."

Sarah regarded him coolly. "You're going to take charge because of what I'm wearing?"

Jimmy gave her an annoyed look. "Well, if you looked like Kathy Bates instead of Miss America, we wouldn't have to have this argument."

He paused for a moment. "I got it. How do you say 'bring him inside' in Russian?"

"_Prinesti yego vnutri_," Sarah replied.

Jimmy quickly took off his jacket and removed his shirt and tie. He then put the coat back on over his t-shirt.

"That should help dress me down a bit. I'll go around to the other side and get them moving in your direction. When you get the signal, do two things. Number one, kick a lot of ass." Jimmy started to walk down another alley.

"And number two?"

Jimmy turned to her. "Repeat number one."

He ran down the alley and turned right at another corner. He climbed over two fences and landed near the alley 30 feet away from the group of men on the opposite side from Sarah. He took a small pebble and whipped it at the streetlight in front of him. The light broke. The men ahead of him were stunned, but they turned back towards watching Chuck. Jimmy walked slowly down the alley, the lack of light obscuring his face.

He gave a quick, short whistle. The men suddenly turned.

"_Prinesti yego vnutri_," Jimmy said and pointed down the alley towards the club. Two of the men kept their guns trained on Chuck, and the rest of the men walked ahead down the alley. Jimmy walked directly behind Chuck.

"_Kak tebya zovut_?" One of the men asked Jimmy his name.

"His…his name?" Chuck asked nervously and glanced back to see Jimmy. The group was 10 feet away from Sarah.

Jimmy pulled two guns out. "Keaton. Dean Keaton."

Chuck's eyes went wide, and he ducked to the ground. Jimmy leaped over him, got in between the two men who were holding Chuck, and shot them simultaneously. The entire group turned around, and Sarah leaped out of her hiding place to land vertical kicks on two of the men. Two others attacked Jimmy, who took one out with a roundhouse kick and landed a hard left cross at the other. Two others tried to grab Jimmy from behind. Chuck bounced up and attacked, throwing a chop at one of them while Jimmy flipped the other to the ground. Sarah took out another one with a jab. Two others tried to grab her, but Chuck pulled them off, landing punches on each. The last one charged at Jimmy, who spun in the air and landed a kick at the man's head, who promptly went down. Jimmy stood over him.

"Who's Keyser Söze?" Jimmy asked the unconscious man defiantly.

Chuck turned toward Jimmy, seeing his new and improved skills for the first time. "You never did that before."

Jimmy's appeared humble. "Yeah, that one where you spin in the air is kind of cool. I practice that a lot."

"Where is Forrest?" Chuck asked.

Jimmy looked toward the main street to see Forrest turn and walk down the alley. She appeared to be beyond incensed.

"Enjoying a 99-cent margarita?"

_**Flamingo Road  
September 18, 2010  
10:45 PM**_

Casey arrived on the scene and checked with Jimmy about the details of their night. Chuck was walking around, attempting to avoid talking to either Sarah or Casey, both of whom he figured wanted to berate him for coming out here. He noticed Sarah standing tight-lipped by the doors to the club. Alex Forrest was staring her up and down.

"All right, Walker," Forrest's normal, professional demeanor was nowhere to be found. "I want the truth. How long have you known Agent Murdock?"

Sarah remained impassive. "We met him three days ago when we picked him up in the ambulance."

"Don't give me that crap! There's no way in hell he could have picked up on what you did in the club if you didn't know him before now."

Sarah's expression didn't change, but she knew Forrest had her on that one. There was no way saying the name Jenny alone would have tipped Jimmy on using the same trick they did last year to escape. Still, she could limit how much Forrest knew.

"We worked together about a year ago. We used the same method as a means of escape when we were captured then."

"Goddamn it! This entire mission is blown because of what Murdock did! He disobeyed a direct order to pursue Kolinova. The Russian government is going to be all over our ass for letting him get away."

"Do you honestly believe any of us had a chance to catch him without a means of pursuit?"

Forrest's look went ice cold. "Well thanks to Murdock, we never got a chance to find out."

Forrest walked away from her, leaving Sarah boiling mad. Unfortunately, Chuck picked the wrong time to walk up behind her.

"I know what you're going to say. I shouldn't have come here."

Sarah whirled around to face him. "No, you shouldn't have! What the hell would you have done once you found us? Did you even consider they may have a hundred men here? You should have helped Casey so both of you could come here!"

"What? So then Casey could yell at me for coming after him? All of you were in trouble! What did you want me to do? Stay up in that damn hotel room and order room service while all of you were killed? I had to make a choice!"

"And look what happened when you made that choice! You almost get killed, this mission is dead in the water, and Forrest is on the warpath!"

Chuck looked at her incredulously. "You can't seriously be laying the blame at me for what happened tonight."

Sarah stared at him. She was suddenly struggling with her words. "No. I'm just…just. I need to walk away from here."

Sarah walked over to Casey and Jimmy to add any details and left Chuck to stare at her with his mouth wide open. Something in his mind stopped him from going after her.

_**Wynn Hotel  
**__**September 19, 2010  
**__**12:15 AM**_

As Chuck and Sarah rode the elevator up to their room, Sarah contemplated how noisy the casino was as they passed through it on the way to their rooms. In this town, this hour of the night meant that the party had just started. Given the night they had, she was in no mood to join them. This night could not be over fast enough for her satisfaction. Chuck and she had not spoken a word to each other for the last 90 minutes. Judging by how upset he appeared, it didn't look like there would be much said to each other anytime soon.

They arrived at their room. Sarah quickly walked into the bathroom. She changed out of her gown and put on a t-shirt and sweatpants. She pulled the ornamental pin from her hair and shook her hair out to her normal style. She looked in the mirror at the tired and angry expression on her face. No doubt she had been wearing the same expression since the club, and she knew people didn't like to deal with her when they saw it. She threw the pin in her bag out of frustration.

She emerged from the bathroom to see Chuck changing into a t-shirt and shorts. He turned to her, but his expression remained the same from before. She looked down at the ground.

"I'll be back in a while," she said quietly and walked out of the suite.

She reached the lobby of the building. She tried to walk around for a few minutes. She noticed the stares from more than a few people in the casino. They weren't the normal stares she got because of how attractive she was. These were stares of surprise and sympathy. At first, she thought it was because of her attire, since she was only wearing sweats. However, some other people in the casino were dressed as informally and did not receive the same treatment. When she saw the sympathetic gaze of a couple she remembered from the ballroom the previous night, it sank in. They expected to see her with Chuck, and the expression on her face must have given away the fact they had a fight. She tried to smile and wave, feigning remembering them from the previous night, but that didn't alleviate matters. She didn't want anybody else to see her like this. This absolute contrast from her almost fairytale appearance from the previous evening. She turned and headed back to the elevators. She punched the button for the 8th floor.

She went down to Jimmy's room and was about to knock on the door. She then remembered what he said earlier about the accounts being fully decrypted by now. She went to the room next door and opened it. Sure enough, Jimmy was at the computer working on the files.

"Hey there. How are you feeling?" he asked.

She tried to give a smile but failed miserably.

"Ugh, that bad." Jimmy tried to be sympathetic. "If it's any help, the minibar over there remains untouched. Feel free to raid it."

Sarah went over to the minibar and looked for a small bottle of wine. She saw the price on the card inside. "$20 for this tiny bottle of wine?"

Jimmy gave a little laugh. "Even after tipping the hell out of everybody downstairs, I'm still up sixty grand for the evening. I think we can risk it."

She pulled both mini-bottles of wine out of the refrigerator. "Do you want anything?"

"If there's a beer in there, that'll work for me." Sarah pulled out a bottle of beer and took a wine glass from a small cupboard next to the minibar. She brought the beer over to him.

"Thanks."

"Are the files done?" She opened one of the wine bottles and poured the contents into the glass.

Jimmy sat back in the chair and opened his beer as he pointed to the monitor. "Yeah. I'm just saving them to a memory stick. Everything seems in order. I was just glancing through some of the names. Truthfully, we might have been wasting our time trying to snag Kolinova. Some of these accounts can be tied to groups here in the States and about 80 other countries. There's probably just as many governments who would like this information to disappear as ones who would want to take credit for it." Jimmy shook his head as he turned his chair to face Sarah. "I've never been near a pool in my life, and somehow I got thrown in the deep end."

"For what it's worth, you did great tonight. We did everything we could, but it still fell apart. That happens from time to time. At least we're still alive. You did what needed to be done when we had to improvise our way out of that club."

Jimmy rubbed his cheek, which was still a little sore. "Uh, yeah. Didn't the CIA teach you how to fake a slap? I don't think you know your own strength."

Sarah laughed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know I did it that hard. Here. You can get me back." She offered her cheek to him. He raised an eyebrow and gently tapped her cheek with one finger.

"There you go. I got you back," he replied with a smirk.

She smiled and hung her head. "Pain in the ass."

Jimmy looked at her for a moment. "I gather Chuck is still upset."

Her smile was gone. "Yes. Why did I yell at him like that? I had no right to take it out on him. I really wish you would have come over there and told me to back off."

Jimmy sat on the bed next to her. "I wasn't sure what to do. Casey and I could hear the entire argument. I didn't think I had enough experience to step in between two agents."

"I think the fight was more between a boyfriend and a girlfriend."

"Oh, then I REALLY didn't have enough experience to step in."

Sarah started laughing and put her head on Jimmy's shoulder. "Come on. Don't start. I'm supposed to yell at you when you say things like that, not laugh at them. You see how screwed up things are?"

"OK. Jokes aside, you just have to apologize, that's all."

"I don't know. He was pretty upset."

"To be truthful, I can't blame him for being at least a little upset. He was in a 'damned if he does, damned if he doesn't' situation. The person he's in love with and several of his closest friends…and Forrest…were in trouble. He had to make a choice, and you know none of us would have just waited around that hotel room and prayed everything would work out if we were in his shoes. We don't have that in our character. He couldn't have known it would be the wrong choice. He came after you for the same reason you yelled at him for doing it. He tried to do what he thought was best. Tonight just blew up in our faces. I'm sure he knows that."

Jimmy gently tilted her head back up. "Just go upstairs. He won't stay mad at you for long. Nobody can. You're too good of a person."

She smiled. "You have a lot more confidence in me than I do."

"I know. There's a role-reversal if you ever saw one, huh?"

Sarah laughed and hugged Jimmy tightly. "Thanks for letting me bend your ear."

"Anytime, kiddo. Now get up there, will you?"

"Goodnight, Jimmy." She exited the room and headed upstairs.

Sarah quietly entered the suite and walked softly to the bedroom. Chuck was sleeping in the bed with his back to her. She walked around to his side of the bed and kneeled down so she was at eye level with him. She took his hand and gently caressed it between hers. He slowly opened his eyes and saw her gazing at him.

"I am so sorry for yelling at you, Chuck. I never should have done that. I was upset the mission failed and Forrest was taking it out on me for what happened in the club. You had to make a choice, and I should be happy you tried to rescue us. I should trust you more instead of worrying you might get hurt. It's just that…I love you and I try not to worry about you as an agent, but sometimes I can't keep myself from…"

She never completed the sentence as Chuck grabbed her and kissed her fervently. He sat up in the bed and pulled her up with him so their lips never broke contact.

He held on to her and looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I should have known that wasn't all about me. I should know you well enough to realize you'd never do that."

She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly as tears came down her cheeks. She kissed him all over his face, threatening to cut off his breathing from holding him so tight.

"I love you so much," she whispered ardently in his ear.

"I love you, too," he replied as his grip on her tightened as well.

They pulled each other onto the bed, unable to stop themselves, a combined passion burning inside of them.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
**__**10:30 AM**_

The team gathered in the hotel room to meet with General Beckman over videoconference. Nobody was expecting this meeting to go smoothly. Chuck and Sarah were standing close together. Although their faces were expressionless, they held each other's hands out of the sight of everyone else. Forrest wore the same irate expression on her face she wore last night after the mission failed. Jimmy stood there and nervously shifted back and forth on each foot.

General Beckman started the meeting. "Agent Forrest, the information on Agent Murdock was on a need-to-know basis because of its sensitive nature. However, you can now be told that Roger Murdock is really James Slade, the civilian who helped the team cripple The Ring a year ago. As far as anyone was concerned, he was killed in the explosion that took out their facility while attempting to rescue Agent Walker and Colonel Casey. The team only knew he was still alive three days ago, like they said."

"Respectfully, General," Forrest replied, trying not to let her considerable anger transfer into her voice. "That information would have been useful. Slade compromised the entire operation. He disobeyed a direct order to pursue Kolinova."

Sarah spoke up. "General, there was no means by which to pursue Kolinova. They got into a car and disappeared. Slade did the only thing he could do and tried to retrieve Chuck."

"Did Slade make any attempt at all to pursue Kolinova, Agent Walker?" Beckman asked the question Sarah didn't want to answer.

"General, Slade was…"

"Agent Walker." The general used a tone of voice that let Sarah know there was only one answer to the question. "Did Slade make any attempt to pursue Kolinova?"

Sarah looked down at the ground and then looked up again. "No, General. His only concern was rescuing Chuck."

The general's face remained the same, but everybody in the room could tell she was not reacting well to what happened. "We have had this situation before with this team, and I have no intention of letting it happen again. Mr. Slade, I am rescinding your active field status. You will report to Langley. We will transfer you to our domestic intel section. We can still make use of your talents here in Virginia. But you are out of the field. Be on the next plane to Dulles."

Chuck's mouth dropped open in shock. He looked over at Jimmy, who was staring at the ground.

"As for the rest of you, we will monitor Kolinova's movements, but I would suspect their group is packing quickly to return to Russia. I want full reports from all of you. Russian FSB is going to want to know how we let Kolinova get away."

The screen went blank. Jimmy headed for the door, his head still down.

"Mr. Slade." Forrest's voice contained an ample amount of contempt as she emphasized the "Mr." part of his name. "The files, please."

Jimmy turned slowly towards her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a memory stick. He tossed it at Forrest. He turned and exited. Chuck followed him out.

Forrest shook her head. "I was right once again. Beckman is in the habit of trying to make spies out of incompetent idiots. What the hell was she thinking?"

Sarah turned on her. "You mean, the incompetent idiot who saved your ass last night?"

"He was doing his job. That's what he's supposed to do."

Sarah's head tilted. "That's odd. You just got him fired for not doing his job. Well, congratulations. You don't have to worry about putting your life in his hands anymore. And if I were you, I wouldn't try to put your life in our hands, either."

Sarah turned and threw open the door. She quickly walked out . Forrest followed her to the door.

"Walker, get back here." Sarah didn't even slow down in walking toward the elevators. "I will not be ignored, Walker!"

Forrest turned back into the room. She looked at Casey. "I'm simply doing my job here."

Casey's expression remained the same. "Interesting. I didn't realize your job included unsolicited editorials. It's not part of my job." He departed the room as well. Forrest stared at the door.

Chuck caught up to Jimmy as he was about to enter his room. "Jimmy, wait."

Jimmy waved him off. "Chuck, just…just let it go, OK? I didn't want to drag all of you into this, and now all of you are in the doghouse because of me."

"I'm not letting this go! You bail me out and they take you out of field for it? That's not right!"

"It doesn't matter what's right. It doesn't matter how many people would have done the same thing. Beckman says it was wrong, and her opinion is all that matters."

"At least let us try to…"

Jimmy cut him off. "Chuck, please. Don't get yourself in more trouble. The ship is sinking. The iceberg is in the rear view mirror. Grab Sarah and Casey and head for the lifeboats."

Jimmy entered his room, and the door closed behind him.

_**Unknown location, Las Vegas  
September 19, 2010  
11:00 AM**_

Kolinova, Melekhin, and Anatoly Petrov gathered together to arrange their flight back to Russia. The previous evening was a complete disaster, and they were fortunate to get away from the authorities. An older gentleman entered the room. The three seemed to recognize him, but they continued with their plans. The older gentleman had a look of annoyance.

"We can't leave it like this, gentlemen."

Kolinova looked at him in a state of shock. "Did you not hear what happened last night? Half the people we brought with us are now in the hands of the Americans or dead! They were after us the whole time. I am not going to risk my empire any further. Not for you, not for Ogarkov, nobody!"

"You take that chance either way. Can you imagine getting back and the Moscow Police suddenly become a lot more efficient in shutting down your businesses? Before you know it, you find yourself buried in a field somewhere outside of St. Petersburg."

The older gentleman grew angry. "You saw Anya there. Do you really want her to get away with what she did to you 8 years ago?"

Kolinova paused for a moment. "We have nothing on them. We have no way of getting to them now."

The older gentleman looked toward Petrov. "Perhaps we have one last card to play."

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
12:00 PM**_

Alex Forrest walked to the main floor of the casino. Her outward appearance was back to her normal, impassive self. However, she was still livid for being sent into this mission without the most pertinent information. Certainly it wouldn't be the first time she had to do her job with less than the most accurate data. However, she felt betrayed by everybody, particularly by Beckman for not revealing who Slade actually was. Had she known the relationship between Slade and the others, she would not have given as much slack to them. She saw what happened last year, and she would not have let that happen twice. This mission might have been a success if she was able to exercise greater control over it. To make matters worse, it was obvious the three of them took Slade's side over hers. No other agent worth their salt would have let Kolinova and Melekhin get away. He made a bad choice, and Beckman agreed with it. That should have been the end of the argument right there.

She shook her head. What the hell was she thinking yesterday? She let her guard down too many times for comfort. She should have readied herself for the fact they would be dressed only in swimwear at the pool, but she was still taken by surprise seeing Slade wearing so little. She cursed herself for overplaying the "girlfriend" role down by the pool. She was subconsciously impressed by what he did to reschedule the meeting and let herself go on him far too much. When she arrived in her hotel room at the end of the night, she realized what she had worn that evening and wanted to tear her hair out.

She took a seat at a bar. She slid the memory stick back and forth between her fingers. All of this wasted effort for something the size of two cigarettes. It wouldn't be the first time she had risked her life over something so small. The nuclear fission equations she retrieved from a computer inside of Iran in 2003 were even smaller than this, but her efforts put a severe dent in their development of WMD's. Of course, maybe 6 or 7 people in the entire world knew she had done that, but that didn't matter. She was aware of her accomplishment. It was the sort of successful mission any agent would dream of.

Across the bar, she noticed Anatoly Petrov nursing a drink and looking nervously back and forth. Something didn't seem right. She expected all of Kolinova's people to make a beeline to McCarran to get out of town quickly. But Petrov had the appearance of someone who was in trouble. She decided to play it cool. Certainly he would have recognized her by now. Let him show his cards first.

Petrov spotted her and changed chairs at the bar so he was only three seats away. He was fearful.

"You were at the club last night, were you not?"

"I don't know what you mean," Forrest replied, attempting to deny any sort of connection.

"You were there. You were there with the other blonde and the man in the tuxedo. You were with my boss. He tried to take something from you. Were you trying to trap him? Are you with the authorities?"

"I still don't know what you mean."

"I'm in trouble. I need help. I can't afford to be mixed up in his affairs."

Forrest looked at him for a moment. Perhaps this mission wasn't dead. If she could play this right, they might have success after all.

"Actually, I work for the U.S. Military. Kolinova is not my target. Murdock is. The information he is trying to sell your boss he stole from our computers at a base on the east coast. I was able to gain his confidence and trace his movements posing as arm candy with the other woman. If we can catch him trying to sell the files to a foreign government, we can charge him and his girlfriend with treason."

"His girlfriend? Well, that would explain their argument last night. I thought it was unusual they would argue like that and you not say anything."

Forrest tried not to smile. Who would have thought Walker's and Slade's "fight" last night would help her now?

"You were never after my boss?" Petrov asked.

"That's another agency's job. Although I'm sure the Russian government wouldn't mind having us apprehend Kolinova."

"What if I could arrange for Kolinova to stay and broker the deal?"

"I assume you want something big in return."

"Of course. I want citizenship in the U.S. and to be set up with an expense account and apartment somewhere. Maybe out in Hollywood. Party with all the actors and rich people? I can be of use to you. I've got a lot of skills in computers."

Forrest inwardly sighed. Another computer geek. She certainly had her fill of them this week. Something about this felt too perfect. But if she wanted to get Kolinova, this might be her only opportunity.

"I'd like to meet with your boss first to go over the details. You can assure him he is not the target."

"I should take you right now. We're supposed to fly to New York in 5 hours."

Forrest gave that some thought. This was not the most ideal situation she could have for making the deal. But it was obvious she could no longer rely on Walker, Bartowski, and Casey to back her. And time was working against her. It was time to salvage this disaster.

"Let's go."

Forrest and Petrov exited the casino and hailed a taxi.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
12:00 PM**_

Chuck and Sarah were in their suite. They had not said much to each other since returning to their room, although the reasons were far different from the reasons they weren't talking 12 hours ago. Beckman's decision to effectively end Jimmy's career hit them hard. For all intents and purposes, the entire blame for the failure of the mission was laid at his feet. It wasn't the first time they have had to deal with Beckman pulling a stunt like this. Perhaps they should have been used to things going this way. But that didn't mean it stung any less.

Sarah was pacing back and forth, even more mad than she was last night.

"How in the hell did this happen?"

Chuck threw his arms up. "I have no idea. Kolinova tries to drop dime on us, we barely escape, and Jimmy takes the fall for all of it. That isn't right."

"We probably should have seen this coming with Forrest in charge."

"I cannot believe what she said to Beckman. She is pulled out of there by you and Jimmy and she turns on him in a heartbeat."

"Well, she's not the only one I'm mad at."

"What do you mean?" Chuck looked at her for a moment. "Don't tell me you're mad at Jimmy."

"The son of a bitch just stood there and took it! He knows damn well he didn't do anything wrong, and he walked out of that room like a whipped puppy! What the hell is wrong with him? He'll go to the grave for just about anybody. Why won't he stand up for himself when he knows none of this was his fault?"

Chuck shook his head. "That's what he's done his whole life, isn't it? Think of how much crap you took. He probably got it just as bad, if not worse. And we were the first people to treat him with any sort of respect. That's 40 years' worth of getting screwed over. Being kicked in the head is second nature to him."

"Well, it's time for his nature to change. He spent the last three days proving himself worthy of being an agent. We can't let him give up on that."

"Any ideas on what to do?"

Sarah stopped and thought for a moment. "I don't know. I'm thinking it won't be pretty." She headed for the door.

"Well, do whatever it takes. But he can't get on that plane to D.C."

Sarah turned and looked at him. "Are you sure about that? Don't forget what I do for a living."

Chuck paused a moment. He wasn't sure what keeping Jimmy here would entail. But he was certain Sarah would come up with an idea or two. Besides, he was in full agreement with her. He sure as hell couldn't let someone who had given up his career and life for them on two separate occasions throw all of it away simply because Beckman needed a fall guy.

Chuck looked her in the eye. "Whatever it takes."

Sarah exited the suite.


	9. Learning to Expect the Unexpected

_We're heading into the home stretch with this story. A few questions get answered here. We find out about "Anya," and we also find out if Jimmy is just going to give up his career like that. Please feel free to review. Actually, a couple of things said in these reviews manage to make their way into the story. This chapter will give you more than a few things to talk about. At least I hope so._

_Enjoy._

* * *

_**Las Vegas, NV  
September 19, 2010  
12:30 PM**_

Alex Forrest & Anatoly Petrov rode in a taxi to an area northwest of the Strip. The land surrounding the area between the Strip and downtown Las Vegas was replete with construction sites and older warehouses. Forrest kept a wary eye on Petrov, as she was still not 100% convinced this deal was legitimate. She thought she had come up with a good cover story to tell Petrov. Hopefully, making Walker and Slade look like the targets would revitalize the mission and allow her to make the capture. She had to proceed carefully.

The light amount of traffic along the road allowed her to notice a sedan speeding up behind them. The sedan quickly closed the gap.

"I think we have a problem."

The sedan rammed them from behind. The taxi skidded out of control, but the driver steered it back into the lane. From across the road, another sedan cut into their lane and swerved. The taxi driver swerved as well, and the two cars collided. The sedan following them rammed the taxi, throwing Forrest and Petrov about in the back. The driver of the sedan in front of the taxi got out. He went to the taxi driver and shot him in the head. Forrest looked at the exchange in shock, the plexiglass divider between the seats now covered in blood.

"We have to get out of here. Just stay down." Forrest pulled out her gun and looked towards Petrov. However, Petrov had his own gun out and pointed it at her.

"Mr. Kolinova will be very happy to see you again, Anya," Petrov replied with a self-satisfied grin on his face. He took Forrest's gun from her.

Forrest looked at him with some confusion and considerable anger. This was the third computer geek to mess with her mission. The anger she directed at Petrov made her miss the passenger in the sedan reaching through the window of the taxi behind her with a taser gun. She was rendered unconscious and fell forward into Petrov's lap.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
12:45 PM**_

Sarah bounded out of the elevator on the 8th floor with a full head of steam going. She was beyond furious at this point. The mission had failed through no fault of their own, Forrest was back to being her usual caustic self, and Jimmy walked out of that videoconference with his tail tucked between his legs as if he was the reason for all of it. She felt Jimmy made the right decision in helping her rescue Chuck. They had no way of capturing Kolinova at the club, but Beckman didn't see it that way. Worse, Jimmy didn't even speak up for himself. He stood there and accepted the punishment. She didn't care it might have been his way in the past. It wouldn't be his way any longer if she had anything to say about it.

She threw open the door to his hotel room without knocking. He stopped in surprise with a shirt in his hands he was about to fold and put in his suitcase.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sarah had no intention of sugarcoating any of this.

Jimmy looked confused. "Uh, packing?"

"Why?"

"Because...the TSA doesn't like it when you carry piles of clothing through the terminal?"

"What the hell is wrong with you? You know none of this is your fault. Why are you taking the fall for them?"

"What? The mission failed, and Beckman ordered me to D.C. What else is there to do?"

"You don't sit there and not say a word when you know you did the right thing! You're…you're not even mad at me for what I said!"

Jimmy's voice started to rise. "Did you lie? 'His only concern was rescuing Chuck.' That's what you said, and you were right. At least you were more diplomatic about it than that bitch Forrest. I didn't make any attempt to see the mission through. I cared about others more than completing the assignment. What the hell good will that do me in the field? Christ, this entire screw-up started because I decided rescuing those damn kids was more important!"

"No! They send you out there with little training and no backup, and now they want to pin this on you? You know damn well that isn't fair!"

"It's not about fair or unfair. It's Beckman's decision, isn't it? There's nothing that can be done when she has the final say."

Sarah stared at him and was ready to explode. "So that's it? You're going to throw away all of your hard work because of some vindictive team lead and a boss who's trying to cover her ass? You'll go to any length to help someone else, but you won't do a thing when it's your own career on the line? Do you even realize how insane that is?"

"What the hell do you want me to do? Beckman isn't going to change her mind on this, OK? I don't have the ability to ignore someone who's in trouble and follow orders."

"Yes you do! You were put in a bad situation and you think this is how you'll react every time? Beckman had no right to pull you out of the field for what you did. This was your first time. It won't always be that way. You just need more experience!"

"Well, unless you can turn me into a complete asshole in the next 20 minutes, I think it's a little too late. And if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not do something like throw a box of kittens out onto Interstate 15."

Jimmy looked down, completely tired and frustrated from what has happened. Sarah was livid. Part of her was starting to think Jimmy might be right. Perhaps he was too nice of a person to be in the field. But she couldn't accept that. He worked too damn hard for things to end this way. It was too bad Roan Montgomery missed that flight. He could have taught Jimmy a thing or two about being a cold-hearted bastard.

_Wait a minute…_, she thought.

Sarah turned back to him. "There is one thing you can do that will prove you can be an unfeeling person when you need to be."

"Like what?" Jimmy weakly muttered.

"Kiss me."

Jimmy's head snapped up, and he stared in shock. "What?"

"You heard me."

"I know what you said. What the hell are you talking about?"

"I said kiss me. Right here, right now. None of this friendly hug or peck on the cheek crap. I mean grab me and kiss me on the lips, hard."

"Are you crazy?"

"Am I? Am I out of my mind? I'm not the one who is letting someone else screw them over because they don't want to take the blame for something going wrong. At least I'm willing to fight for what's right. You tell me who is out of their mind, huh?"

"I'm not doing it! You're in love with Chuck. He's one of my only friends on this whole goddamn planet! I would never do that to him."

"That's the whole idea! I'm completely and totally in love with Chuck, and you have to ignore that! You have to not care about it! You want to be turned into a bastard, here's a way to do it."

"Forget it! It's not happening!"

Sarah glared at him as her voice took on the sound of a threat. "You will do it."

"Or what?" Jimmy was defiant.

Sarah might have backed down in any other situation. What she was doing could certainly be classified as crazy. But something in the back of her mind had latched on to this idea, primarily because she did not want Jimmy to get on that plane. There was no way he would get chained to a desk for simply doing what was right. Jimmy was stellar at protecting others. Now she would have to protect him from himself.

Sarah pulled a knife out from behind her back. "Or I start cutting off body parts."

Now it was Jimmy's turn to glare. "OK, you're going a little insane here."

Sarah started walking towards him and pointed the knife at his groin. "I'll start with the two things you don't seem to be willing to use."

Jimmy started backing away. "You are completely around the bend, Sarah."

Sarah was quickly losing her common sense. "There's only one way to stop me."

"I'm NOT doing it!"

"Five seconds." Sarah continued to move towards Jimmy, and he continued to back away.

"Put that knife away!"

"Four."

"Enough of this crap. Stop it!"

"Three."

"Are you crazy? Someone is going to get hurt!"

"Two."

"You are out of your mind!" Sarah had Jimmy backed into a corner of the room. He had no escape.

"One."

Jimmy lunged forward, took Sarah's face in both hands, and kissed her. She dropped the knife and her arms came around him as well. The rage and anger she felt towards Jimmy for not sticking up for himself was rechanneled into her kiss. For a brief few seconds that felt more like minutes, she forgot about everything except the sensation of kissing him. It was a different feeling from Chuck, whose kisses could light a fire under her that would burn for weeks, if not months. But she unquestionably felt sparks of electricity run through her when she kissed Jimmy. Perhaps emotion played a part in it. It was hard not to feel something for a person that saved Chuck and her over and over again, even giving up his career and life for them. She was certain she would have felt this way a year ago. But the fact Jimmy was infinitely more handsome now, while keeping those kind and courageous qualities, made the kiss even more special.

A piece of her rational mind finally spoke up. _OK, you made your point. You can stop kissing him. You're in love with Chuck! Enough already!_ She finally opened her eyes.

Jimmy had broken the kiss a few seconds earlier.

"Happy now?" Jimmy's voice rasped, containing a substantial amount of vitriol towards her.

Sarah looked into his eyes. They showed tremendous amounts of anger, even a little hatred, towards her. It was certainly understandable, given she just threatened to cut off his balls if he didn't kiss her. But through the resentment, she also saw a little bit of realization in his eyes. There was something there telling her he understood what she did.

Her voice was soft. "See? You can do it."

Sarah quietly went to the door, feeling Jimmy's hardened gaze on her as she walked across the room. As she put her hand on the door handle, she stopped for a moment and turned back to Jimmy.

"Was that…that...your…" Jimmy's eyes flared in anger at the assumed question. "Never mind." She quickly walked out.

Outside of the room, Sarah took a moment to get her bearings. Jimmy could certainly add kissing to the ever-growing list of things he was good at. If he could kiss that well on his first try, Sarah wondered how good of a kisser he would be once he got some practice. Whatever woman found him would never know what hit her.

_**North Las Vegas  
September 19, 2010  
1:30 PM**_

Alex Forrest slowly awakened to find herself tied to a chair in the middle of an abandoned warehouse. There was nothing surrounding her, but she could see light coming through windows at the top of the building. She wasn't sure if it was still Sunday, but it was clearly daytime. There were a couple of doors to either side of her. Through the doors to her left, Kolinova and Melekhin appeared along with an older gentleman. She did not know the name of the older gentleman, but she recognized him as the one on his phone in the Platinum Room the previous night. That must have been the person Kolinova's bodyguard was looking at during the card game. However, whoever was on the phone would be the important link in all of this, since the older gentleman was taking the orders from that person. Unfortunately, she was in no position to continue the investigation.

Kolinova walked up to her with a look of fury, which was in sharp contrast to his calm demeanor the night before.

"Anya Kodoroff, I did not know I would ever get a chance to see you again. You have no idea how badly I wanted to have this opportunity after what you did to my comrades in Prague."

Forrest looked at Kolinova disdainfully as one important piece of information clicked. She worked with the Czech Secret Police in helping them break up an arms deal in 2002 under the alias Anya Kodoroff. Although she never found out who was behind it, she was successful in stopping the deal, killing a dozen men in the process. It was now apparent Kolinova was the man behind the deal. Clearly revenge was on his mind. However, why not kill her last night at the club? Were the accounts worth that much more than his revenge? And how does the old man fit in?

"Well, I'm sorry you didn't have the balls to broker the deal yourself. It would have been my pleasure to dispatch of you then."

Kolinova hit her across the face. She spat out some blood from the hit, but she was otherwise defiant. Kolinova stared at her, trying to restrain himself.

"You want this to end slowly and painfully for you? I can arrange that. I was just going to put a bullet through your head out of kindness. Now, I think not."

Kolinova took out a knife and prepared to cut off Forrest's clothes.

"Wait!"

All three men turned to the sound. Petrov bolted through the door carrying a laptop. The memory stick Forrest had was attached to the laptop.

"What is the matter?" Melekhin asked impatiently.

"She didn't have the accounts. At least not the decoded ones. These files are encrypted."

Forrest didn't change expression, but her initial surprise was taken over by an obvious revelation. Jimmy never handed her the decoded accounts. He gave her the original files from a month ago. She should have guessed he wouldn't just hand her the files after she got him sent back to Washington. Not trusting her just bought Forrest some time.

The older gentleman spoke. "How long will it take to decode the files?"

"I'm not sure," Petrov replied. "Several months at the minimum. This is high-security encryption."

"That's no good! The election is in a month. We must release the accounts before then to insure he wins!"

_And there it is_, she thought. The political connection the Russian government suspected was real. A member of the Russian parliament was working with Kolinova's group. Suddenly, she felt like an idiot. Had they caught Kolinova and Melekhin last night, the trail would have been burned and they would have ended up with a ticked-off Russian crime boss who would have bought his way out of prosecution. Walker and Slade did the right thing, and she got him sent to a desk for it. Hindsight was always 20/20, wasn't it?

"Enough of this!" Kolinova snarled. He went after Forrest.

"Stop!" The older gentleman gave Kolinova a threatening look. "She is a valuable hostage. If she is not the expert on breaking these files, it must be one of the other two, or perhaps someone who works with them. We have to know if they have the actual accounts or not. If we don't find out, they'll just pull the money out of the accounts and we have nothing."

"What do you suggest?"

"We see if we can get our hands on the decoded accounts. If we fail, we're no worse off than we are now and you can kill her. But if we can, then all of us benefit. Let us see how attached her friends are to her."

In a way, Forrest had to smile at that. If they tried to use her as a hostage, they would never get those files. Forrest probably pissed off Bartowski, Walker, and Casey enough to leave her for dead. Unfortunately, it also meant she was nearing the end of her final mission.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
1:30 PM**_

Sarah walked down the hall back to 14-015. She was a bit hesitant. Obviously Chuck's "whatever it takes" edict to keep Jimmy here wouldn't be forgotten so quickly. However, she was still apprehensive at his reaction. There would be no doubt she would tell him what she did, since she valued an honest relationship with Chuck…up to a point, obviously. But she prepared herself for a negative reaction just to be safe.

She entered the room slowly. Chuck was sitting on the couch.

"Everything OK?" he asked.

"Fine," she replied in a timid voice Chuck never heard from her before.

"Did you talk to him? Is he staying here?"

"I hope so." Her nervousness was too obvious.

Chuck became concerned. "Sarah, what aren't you telling me? You look terrified. What happened?"

Sarah looked at him and then stared at the ground. "Well, he was packing to leave, and I read him the riot act about giving up so easily."

"That's not a surprise. He doesn't take to defending himself very well. I still don't see a problem."

Sarah sat down on the other couch. "He was convinced Beckman was right and he would let being too nice get in his way. So I had to come up with something to convince him he could be a little more heartless."

Chuck was confused. "I really don't know where you're going with this."

She exhaled slowly. "He kissed me."

Chuck stopped dead in his tracks. He stared at her. "He kissed you?"

"To be more accurate, I made him kiss me." Chuck was silent, which didn't make Sarah feel better. "I thought something like that would force him to admit he was capable of doing whatever had to be done on this job. I don't know. It...it was all I could improvise on a spur of the moment."

Chuck sat there for another minute that felt like an eternity to Sarah. She could tell he was processing everything she said in his mind. She was hoping he wouldn't be too upset.

Slowly, a smile came across his face.

"Well, you saved me the trouble of kissing him. And really, we already know I prefer blondes over brunettes."

Sarah eyed him with a bit of surprise. "You're not upset in the least?"

Chuck sat next to her. "Maybe I should be. A good boyfriend should be upset by such things. But I gave you the green light to do whatever you had to do to keep him here, so I have no right to be upset when you actually do that."

"I just wish I had thought it through instead of acting on instinct. Either I was going to kiss him or inflict bodily harm upon him. But I still feel horrible. This isn't the sort of thing couples should do to each other."

Chuck gave a small laugh. "If those were your only choices then believe me, I'd rather have you kiss him than hurt him. And you have to remember, we're not the typical couple, and Jimmy sure as hell isn't a typical friend of ours. How many people give up their lives for you like he did? It's kind of hard not to feel close to him. Not a lot of people would do everything he has done."

She smiled and was finally able to look into his eyes. "You would. But that's your nature. That's one of the best things about you. It was one of the things that made me fall in love with you."

Chuck took her hand. "Both of us are good at that. You always do anything to protect me and my family. You always did." He paused and turned away from her. "Besides, you were beyond supportive when I wanted to date Lou, and then I went back to Jill, even though she turned out to work for Fulcrum. And there's that one I never told you about, so how can I be upset if you kiss Jimmy?"

Sarah gave him an odd glance. "What one you never told me about?"

Chuck struggled with his words. "Well, it was an intense situation, and I didn't think I'd survive. But…I once kissed…Casey."

Sarah stared at him in mock horror. Chuck pretended to break down crying.

"I'm sorry! I thought we were going to die from that virus in the hotel!"

Sarah tried not to crack up. "Oh, I can't believe it! We are so over! You kissed Casey!"

Chuck was starting to laugh as well. "I couldn't help it! That short-cropped hair and that squared jaw were just so irresistible! He's got the cutest butt, too!"

Sarah doubled over laughing. "OK, that's true. He does have a cute butt."

The two fell down on the couch laughing themselves silly.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
1:45 PM**_

Jimmy stood in the same spot he had been since Sarah left. He hadn't packed any more clothing. He actually hadn't done a single thing in all that time. His mind was still racing over what happened.

He was always led to believe a first kiss was something special; it was something never to be forgotten. That would certainly be true in his case. He couldn't think of too many guys who had been threatened with castration if they didn't kiss someone. He never gave thought to how his first kiss would be since he spent so much time in the last 6 months training and his entire life before that never believing he'd get the opportunity. But one thing was certain; he sure as hell didn't want his first kiss to be with the girlfriend of one of his only friends in this world; a woman who also happened to be one of his only friends in this world. He didn't know what to feel right now. On the one hand, he didn't have much of a choice. He was threatened into it by someone who was quite adept at using a knife. On the other hand, Chuck and Sarah were two people who were unequivocally in love with each other. Hell, Westley and Buttercup from _The Princess Bride_ were an ugly divorce by comparison. Compelled to or not, he didn't feel right encroaching on their relationship.

But he did. And you can't un-kiss somebody.

_Mission accomplished, Sarah_, he thought. _You wanted to turn me into a bastard. I feel like a complete and total one now._

Jimmy tried to shake his head loose of these thoughts. She did what she did for a reason. Out in the field, there was no question he would have had to do something far worse than throw a box of kittens into the street. Maybe he could have done it; maybe not. But it was irrelevant now.

The phone in his room rang. He went to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Roger…" Alex Forrest's voice was heard.

Jimmy was instantly vexed. "What the hell do you want?"

Another voice piped in. "What she wants is to stay alive."

Jimmy eyes widened in shock, and he quickly grabbed his mobile phone to record the conversation. "Who is this?"

"I think you know who this is. And I want the decoded accounts. 5 PM. Warehouse on 12th Street and Bonanza Road. Come alone. Anybody besides you comes anywhere near there, she's dead."

The caller hung up on him. Jimmy saved the recording on his phone and headed for the elevator. He took it up to the 14th floor.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
1:50 PM**_

"Do I have to answer that? I gave you the massage answer yesterday."

"Oh, I swear, I won't be upset."

Chuck and Sarah were still sitting together on the couch in their suite. It was something which still annoyed Sarah about Chuck: his overdeveloped curiosity. He always pressed her for information, even when he knew she couldn't give it. Sometimes she found it endearing. But not now. It was one of those things which made them such polar opposites. He was always outgoing, friendly, and kind. She was always guarded, quiet, and wary of others. So far, he was more successful at drawing her out than she was at bringing him down a notch.

"Why do you have to know how good of a kisser Jimmy is?"

"Call it a weird curiosity. Every single thing he's done so far, he's excelled at it. I just wanted to know if it was the same for this."

Sarah snuggled up to Chuck. "Now you know nobody compares to you. It's not even close."

"Again, nice try with the girlfriend answer. Be honest, Sarah."

Sarah refused to talk. Chuck raised an eyebrow. "Uh-oh, you leave me no choice."

Chuck took her hands and held them tightly. He then started kissing all along her neck. She started moaning, but her instincts to grab Chuck were thwarted by him holding her hands in place.

"Ooooh, you do not play fair," Sarah panted, attempting to force her neck up against Chuck's lips. He kept teasing her by pulling away.

"You know what they say about love and war…"

Sarah growled quietly but relented. "I think that was his first-ever kiss, although I didn't press him to tell me."

"Was he better than Bryce?"

Sarah paused. "That's a tough question. It's hard to compare the two. I don't know how much of Bryce was emotion and how much was just pure electricity. It's hard to know after you broken up with someone if the kisses were really good or if that was just in your mind."

"OK, how about Cole?"

"Oh, he's way better than Cole."

"Now THAT makes me happy." Chuck was practically beaming.

Sarah turned to him with a devilish grin. "Oh, it does, huh?" She pinned him down on the couch. "Maybe I should see who is better in bed. Like you said, if he excelled at everything else…"

"I was really pushing my luck there, wasn't I."

"Yes you were, mister." Sarah lay on top of him and kissed him hard.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Chuck got up to answer the door. He looked at the monitor to see Jimmy waiting for them.

"It's Jimmy."

Sarah shook her head. "He's probably going to apologize to you for kissing me. He really has to stop with this walking-on-eggshells attitude he has."

Chuck opened the door. The concern on Jimmy was apparent.

"Jimmy, Sarah told me what happened. Quit feeling so guilty. She kissed you for your own good."

Jimmy's mouth dropped open in shock. "That's…not...why...I was here." He hung his head. "Forrest was taken hostage. Kolinova wants the accounts or she's dead." He handed Chuck his phone. "It's all recorded. Just hit play."

Jimmy turned and quickly walked away. Chuck and Sarah stared at each other.

"Damn him!" Sarah bolted quickly out of the room. She caught up to Jimmy before he reached the elevator and blocked his path.

"Jimmy, enough already! You can't keep acting like this! Don't even tell me you're upset about what happened. You have no right to be! I don't regret what I did. You needed a little lesson in how not to be a doormat!"

Jimmy looked at her for a moment. "You don't even regret threatening to cut off my balls?"

Sarah shied away in embarrassment. "Oh, I did that, didn't I? OK, I apologize for that. But I don't regret anything else. Jimmy, an agent has to do a lot of things that the average person could never do because they have some sort of moral or ethical objection to it. It's safe to say you'll have to do things in the field far more cruel than kissing someone's girlfriend. There's no way to know whether you can do it or not until it's time. But you didn't even want to give yourself a chance. You were convinced you were a failure for making a decision Beckman didn't agree with. And she did that from the comfort of an office in D.C. She's not out in the trenches where you have to make these split-second decisions. She just sits there and dissects everything after the fact."

Jimmy was afraid to look at her. "I don't know. I just didn't think I could do it when push came to shove."

Sarah took Jimmy's hand and guided him to a bench in the hallway. "You're not looking at this the right way. Do you even realize you haven't failed once on this mission? You've done everything that was required of you and more. Maybe it's hard to see when you're so involved in it, but until last night, this mission was going perfectly. And last night only fell apart because we knew we could be walking into a trap, but we had to do it anyway. It was the only way to make the mission a success. The mission didn't fail because of anything you, me, or anybody else did. It just failed. But you'll go crazy if you try to take the blame for it. You just have to take what happened and apply it to the next time. It's something I had to learn out in the field. And I trained for a much longer time than you did. Most of my first missions were walks in the park compared to what you drew for your first assignment."

Jimmy nodded silently. Sarah hoped what she was saying was getting through.

"You were put into an unfair situation when you had to choose between pursuing Kolinova and rescuing Chuck. You needed to know you were capable of doing whatever was required when the time came. That's the main reason I forced you into kissing me. To make you do something you were too afraid to do."

Jimmy gave her an odd glance. "The main reason?"

Sarah looked away for a moment. "OK, I have to admit, a little part of me was curious." Jimmy's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Oh, come on. You never even gave the tiniest thought to what kissing me would be like?"

Now it was Jimmy's turn to look away. "I tried not to. I was being respectful."

"And once again, there's a very thin line between being respectful and having people wonder what your sexual preference is."

Jimmy couldn't help but smile. Sarah put her arm around him.

"That's another thing you're going to have to learn how to deal with, agent or not. I am completely, utterly, and forever in love with Chuck. I probably always was, and I don't doubt I always will be. Even with that, I still gave you some thought. Now if you can do that to someone who has already found the perfect guy, can you imagine what you'd do to the woman who is still looking for hers? You were already very intelligent, responsible, funny, caring, and brave. A year ago, you would have been a great catch. But now, you are also absolutely gorgeous. Even better, you have no arrogance about it at all. You better prepare yourself. You can't hide anymore thinking you're not worthy of another person. Women will find you. And quite a few of them won't take no for an answer."

She stood up. "If you really are heading for a desk, at least go out with a bang." She held out her hand. "Come on. We need you."

Jimmy looked at her for a moment and then took her hand and rose as well. A slight smile came to his face.

"You're good people, Walker."

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "I know. I try my best." She put her arm around his waist as they walked back down the hall. "But I have to know. Was that your first kiss?"

Jimmy looked down. "Yeah, it was. I certainly won't forget it, will I."

She laughed. "I wouldn't expect you to. I will say this: you're a damn good kisser. I shudder to think how good you'll be once you get some practice."

"Really?"

"Put it this way: if we ever had to pose as a couple and make out, I wouldn't exactly hate it."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Oh, goody. That's my third awkward moment with you this weekend. Couldn't you hate it just a little bit?"

She grinned. "OK, fine. Just to be nice, I promise to be completely and totally disgusted with kissing you."

He shook his head. "You're a riot, Sarah."

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
2:15 PM**_

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy gathered around the computer to look at the video surveillance from the casino to gather some clues. Casey reviewed the information he pulled off the computer regarding where Forrest was being kept.

"It's an abandoned warehouse just north of Interstate 515. Unfortunately, put a couple of people on the roof and they can spot just about anything. If they have enough people, you'd be walking into a trap."

"I don't get it," Chuck replied as he turned to Jimmy. "Why are they demanding the decoded accounts? You gave them to Forrest."

"Uh...actually, I didn't." Jimmy pulled out a memory stick. "These are the decoded accounts. The memory stick she has contains a copy of the original files, before I started decrypting them.

"You weren't going to keep those." Casey's voice rose in anger at Jimmy.

"Of course not. I was going to hand them to you before I left. The only people I trust in this whole world are sitting in front of me right now. I sure as hell wasn't going to hand them to Forrest. But if you gave the files to her anyway, at least I'd know you thought that was the best decision."

Sarah played the surveillance video from her camera on the monitor. Jimmy caught something. "Sarah, wait. Roll that back 20 seconds." Sarah rewound the footage as Jimmy leaned forward to look intensely at the monitor. As the video played, he saw an older gentleman with a mobile phone. Jimmy flashed, seeing images of the Soviet Politburo, a May Day parade, and Soviet tanks. He fell to the floor as the headache from his flash hit him hard.

"Son of a bitch." Jimmy was holding his head from the pain as Chuck and Sarah helped him up. "I never got a good look at that bastard last night. That's the guy the bodyguard was looking at."

Chuck looked at the same person. "That's weird. I didn't flash on him."

"That's not a surprise. You two were probably still learning your multiplication tables the last time he was relevant. That's Yuri Kazanov. He was part of the old Soviet government back in the 70's and early 80's. Real hard-ass, old-school type. He probably had posters of Nikita Kruschev on his wall the way kids have Justin Bieber posters on their walls now. He was a real up-and-comer in the Central Committee until everything started changing in the late 80's. To say he was unhappy when Gorbachev moved towards peace with the U.S. and changed the economic system of the USSR is a massive understatement."

"Supposedly, he took his own life in '93," Casey added. "We assumed the transitional government decided to keep him quiet permanently. Obviously that didn't happen."

"But who is he in contact with?" Sarah asked. "Clearly it was the person on the other end of the phone who was calling the shots."

"Hang on," Chuck answered. "Let me try something."

Chuck put on a set of headphones and plugged them into the computer. He rolled back the footage to get the entire conversation. He synchronized the feed from Sarah's lipstick camera and the overhead security feed from the casino. He adjusted the sound to filter out the ambient noise. He listened carefully. He had a flash of his own.

"The voice is Viktor Ogarkov. He's a member of the State Duma."

"The Russians were right," Sarah replied. "Someone in the government is linked to Kolinova."

Jimmy inserted the memory stick into his laptop and quickly looked through the files. "There are a bunch of accounts that are linked to Russian companies. Wait a minute. None of the companies are linked to Ogarkov, but they are linked to several people who are either in the Duma or are running for it from the other political party."

"So Ogarkov will use those files to increase his party's presence in the government."

"But if he's linked through Kazanov, there has to be a lot more to it than that."

"It's a bloodless coup, isn't it," Casey answered with a more-serious-than-usual look on his face. "Kazanov and Ogarkov get the majority in the government by acting like they're winning the war on terrorism by seizing these accounts. They slowly bring back the Iron Curtain and start building the USSR back up. With the remaining money, they could fund Iran's nuclear program or funnel it to terror cells throughout the world and create enough 9/11's to force the U.S. to retool their entire defense strategy."

"But what's in it for Kolinova?" Chuck asked.

"Well, they can't go all the way back to a full communist system," Jimmy answered. "The best they can do is keep tight control. So they strike a deal with Kolinova. He helps them now, and they become very efficient at using the police to eliminate Kolinova's competitors while Kolinova supposedly stays one step ahead."

Chuck exhaled deeply. He couldn't believe how far-reaching this mission had become. "But with all of that on the line, why try to steal the files from us? I would think $150 million is a small price to pay for the files."

Sarah turned back to the computer and did some research. "Here's something interesting. Kolinova lost a lot of money and several close associates in 2002 in an arms deal that was broken up by the Czech Secret Police. There was an agent named Anya Kodoroff who was the key to stopping the deal."

Sarah turned to everybody. "Anya is an alias for one Agent Alex Forrest. The CIA never found out what group was behind the deal."

"Aaah, hell." Jimmy was incredulous. "They were playing us the whole damn time. We were screwed from the minute they saw her at the pool."

"They're going to kill her whether we give them the files or not." Chuck could feel the alarm building inside of him.

Casey nodded. "The logical thing to do would be to refuse the ultimatum since she's a dead woman either way."

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy looked at each other for a moment. A silent decision passed between them.

Jimmy shook his head. "We have got to be the dumbest spies on the planet."

"We could always say we tried to recover the memory stick," Chuck offered.

"Or we tried to expose the link between Kolinova and a member of the Russian government," Sarah replied.

"Whatever makes you happy. Besides, you know I can't resist a little gunplay." Casey looked like he was ready to have some fun.

The four prepared for a rescue operation.


	10. The Former Nerd In Me

_I'm sure I ticked off one or two of the Charah shippers with the last chapter. But that was one of the ideas I wanted to cover with this story. Just like in the first story, "Chuck vs. the Alpha Version," I expanded on a concept that I found in the show or that people have discussed. In that story, it was the concept of Stephen Bartowski having his own old-school flash. It seemed a bit odd the first person a scientist would test something on is themselves (Bruce Banner not withstanding), and that's where the story got its origins. In this story I wanted to explore the topic of Chuck and Sarah being together and how that would affect their jobs. The question has been raised many times regarding if one of them had to seduce someone on the job. I thought I would turn that around a little bit and ask the question, "Is there a situation where not only would one of them know the other would seduce or kiss another person, they would approve of it?" Not sure how that particular situation played out, but I thought it was an interesting concept to explore._

_Only one chapter left after this one. This chapter has a lot of action in it. Enjoy, and please leave reviews._

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_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
3:00 PM**_

Sarah returned to the room with several weapons and pieces of surveillance equipment. Casey was on the phone in his room procuring vehicles from the local NSA office. Chuck and Jimmy were huddled in front of the computer looking at satellite images of the warehouse where the exchange would take place in two hours.

"Is there anything else you can get from the warehouse?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing more than we already know," Chuck replied. "There isn't enough heat being picked up from the thermal imaging satellites to detect any sort of elaborate network setup or surveillance system. In the warehouse, there are only a few bodies inside. If they have others, they could be in a spot where the satellite can't see them."

"That, or they'll wait until the last moment to send those people in," Jimmy added.

Sarah nodded. "Unfortunately, there are only a few satellites accurate enough to pick up something as small as a mouse in there, and we don't have enough time to have those re-tasked for our use."

Jimmy was lost in thought. "I wish there was a way to make this more than just rescuing Forrest. You know damn well Beckman wouldn't approve of this. I don't want her hanging you three out to dry."

"Unless we can come up with something, let's keep things simple. They don't know we're aware of their plans. For now, it's best to just play dumb."

Jimmy smiled. "Finally, something I'm good at."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Chuck, would you…"

"No problem." Chuck smacked Jimmy in the back of the head without turning away from the monitor.

"Hey, I got fired this morning. Aren't I allowed one or two?"

"NO!" Sarah and Chuck vehemently replied at the same time.

Jimmy quietly growled. "I gotta find new friends."

"Tired of us already?" Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, it's just that I'll be three thousand miles away after this. Probably sitting at a desk hacking system after system and trying to steal information about what some terror group is planning to do. I'll need someone to drown my sorrows with at the end of the day."

Chuck turned toward Jimmy. He stared at him for a moment. "I think you just gave me an idea. Sarah, when did you and Casey plan to leave?"

Sarah checked the time. "About 90 minutes. We have to run some reconnaissance before Jimmy walks in."

Chuck stared at the monitor and ran some ideas in his head. "That might be just enough time. If Jimmy gives me a hand, I think I can come up with a way to get this mission back on track."

"OK, but we can't go past 90 minutes. I'll go check on Casey." Sarah exited the room. Jimmy turned to Chuck.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Can you rewrite the accounts to have fake account numbers?"

"Easily. But what good will that do? The first thing they're going to do is verify the accounts. If they don't check out, they'll shoot Forrest and me. If they do, well, they'll probably still shoot Forrest and me."

"All we need is for them to buy it for a few minutes."

"To what end?"

"Well, while you're conducting the panty raid, I'm going to install the cameras with Lamar and Wormser."

Jimmy gave him a weird look. "Oooo…kay. Just make sure I'm not Booger in this scenario, willya?"

_**North Las Vegas  
September 19, 2010  
4:00 PM**_

Inside the warehouse, Kolinova and Melekhin escorted Forrest to a location near the center of the warehouse about 100 feet from the door where they expected Jimmy to enter. Two men with automatic weapons stood behind her with their guns pointed at her. Petrov was near a small table with a laptop computer resting on it. Kazanov entered and walked back and forth in front of Forrest like a drill sergeant inspecting a soldier.

"You should look on the bright side, Anya. Things are about to get a lot more difficult for your government. They'll be stretched thin throughout the world, and operatives like you will be left out there with nobody to help you. Better to lose your life now mercifully than to spend years in captivity, being tortured every single day until they decide you're no longer worth the effort, and leave to you a painful death. Our country has lost too much in the last 30 years. It is time to change that."

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
4:15 PM**_

Chuck put the final touches on his plan. Jimmy handed him the altered accounts, and Chuck integrated them into the special memory stick he had prepared for the exchange.

"There we are. Hopefully, that will tip the scales. All you have to do is hand it to them and make sure they run it. After that, you just have to get them to confess the link to Ogarkov on the record."

"Good work, Chuck. You can be very devious when you want to be."

"Maybe I've been hanging out with Casey too much lately. Or Morgan. We have to keep tabs on him all the time. He's a little simpler, though. All he wants is an honest week's pay for an honest day's work."

"Wow, that is so shocking," Jimmy deadpanned. He appeared downcast.

Chuck looked at him. "You OK, Jimmy? You look a little out of it. That may not be the best thing given what we're about to do. You sort of are involved in it, you know."

Jimmy gave a little smile. "Sorry. It's been a crazy 24 hours. This isn't really how I expected the world of espionage to be. I just figured it would be find the bad guys, bring them to justice, and repeat until old or dead. I sure as hell wasn't expecting to do a Hugh Hefner imitation in the middle of a swanky hotel or learn how to be a complete bastard by making out with one of my best friends." Jimmy paused, feeling a slight shiver go through him. "And I want to apologize for kissing her, by the way."

"Will you stop that? She made you do it. It was something you needed to show you can step up to the plate, regardless of how afraid you are to do it. If it's any help, she still scares me quite a bit."

Jimmy smiled. "I would say she is the scariest blonde since Glenn Close in _Fatal Attraction_. Unless you count Jessica Alba's acting."

Chuck laughed. "Well, I still consider myself lucky to be with her."

"Can't say I blame you. This has been a lot easier to deal with thanks to the three of you. I don't know, it just feels weird. I'm still not used to it."

"But you're good at this. You keep saying you can't do something, but then you turn around and do it. You just have to know you can do it beforehand and not stop yourself from trying. You know? You're like this big bear with these big fangs, and these sharp claws, and the world is just this little bunny sitting there, cowering, shivering."

Jimmy gave him a weird look. "Really, that's all you got? You're Trent and I'm Mikey?"

"Well, I could start quoting _Casino_, but I really don't think you want to hear my Joe Pesci imitation."

"Good point. At least you didn't suggest jumping out of a plane in my Elvis outfit."

"Ewww, man. No Nicolas Cage references. Ever."

Jimmy gave him a look. "Not even _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_? He was in that, you know."

"Gee, thanks for ruining that movie for me. Even Phoebe Cates won't get that out of my head now."

Jimmy laughed as Sarah entered the room. "Are you two ready?"

Chuck and Jimmy looked at each other.

"Let's go," Chuck replied.

_**North Las Vegas  
September 19, 2010  
4:35 PM**_

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey drove along Bonanza Street, taking care not to slow down or look around as they passed the warehouse. Chuck sat in the back of the car with a laptop, attempting to detect any surveillance cameras.

"There are no windows along the north and west walls until you get to the top of the building," Casey observed. "That will be the best place for me to get to the roof."

Sarah nodded in acknowledgment. "And once you've taken out anybody up there, I'll slip into the building. Jimmy, are you in position?"

Two blocks away, Jimmy sat in another car out of sight of the warehouse with another laptop and a portable hard drive attached to it. "Just waiting for Chuck to give me the IP addresses of their system."

"Got them," Chuck replied after several moments. "Transmitting them to you now."

"Thank you." A moment or two passes. "I'm in their system. Recording the video feed now."

"You only have 10 minutes of time to record, Jimmy," Sarah replied with some concern.

"Trust me. If I'm in there longer than 10 minutes, I'll be chained to a gravesite instead of a desk."

"Casey, are you ready?"

Casey was in the passenger seat, readying the rappelling equipment he needed to scale the outside wall. He put on his backpack and checked his Sig Sauer pistols. "Ready."

Sarah turned to hide the car behind a building two blocks away from the northwest corner of the warehouse. They waited for Jimmy's signal.

"The video is running," Jimmy replied a few moments later. "Checking the satellite image. There are four on the roof. Two of them are at the southeast corner, no doubt waiting for me to show up. The third is walking towards them along the south end of the building. The fourth is at your corner. Hang on. Now the fourth one is walking south away from you. It won't get any better than that."

"Got it," Sarah replied. She pulled out and drove along the street north of the warehouse. She slowed the car, and Casey leaped out. He sprinted to the building and pressed himself against the side to remain out of sight. Sarah floored it down the street and turned to meet with Jimmy's car.

"How are we doing?" Jimmy asked them as they pulled up next to his car.

"Everything is in place," Sarah replied. "It's all up to you now."

"Gee, thanks Sarah. I didn't think there was enough pressure on me already. I really needed some more, quite honestly."

"You'll do fine. Remember? You haven't made a mistake on this mission. Just stick to the plan."

"Yup. Give them the memory stick and let all hell break loose."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Chuck chimed in. "This will work. You know how to kill the bunny. Just go in there and get those digits OK? You're money."

Jimmy smiled and pulled out, driving towards the warehouse. Chuck and Sarah changed places in the car. As she got out of the driver's seat, she gave Chuck an odd look.

"Was that a _Swingers_ reference you just used?"

"Yeah. It's Las Vegas. How can you not quote _Swingers_?"

Sarah tilted her head in amusement. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Mikey end up with Heather Graham at the end and Trent got fooled by the lady in the diner with the baby?"

Chuck suddenly got a little uncomfortable. "Oh, you saw that movie. I better work on my analogies."

"You think?" Sarah grinned as she gave the knife one last little turn into Chuck's pride. They got in their vehicle and waited for Casey's signal.

Casey looked in both directions to see if anybody was walking along the outside of the building. Spotting nobody, he armed his piton rifle and aimed for the top of building. He fired two pitons into locations just below the roof. Both pitons embedded themselves in the concrete, and he attached the rope to his harness. He began to make the 80-foot climb up the building.

Jimmy slowly drove the car to the door along 12th Street. He got out and kept his eyes open for any of Kolinova's men. He slowly walked inside the warehouse, and looked around for some sort of welcoming party. As he went into the main section of the warehouse, two of Kolinova's men stopped him and put guns to his head. He opened his jacket to show the gun he was carrying on a hip holster. They took his weapon and gestured for him to continue walking. They stopped him across the floor from Kolinova, Melekhin, and Kazanov.

Casey reached the top of the warehouse. He carefully peeked over the ledge to locate the four men keeping watch on the roof. One of them was heading towards his position. The man peered over the ledge to check the street. Casey grabbed him by the collar and threw him off the roof. Casey quickly pulled himself up on the roof and immediately took out his gun. He shot two of the men on the run and closed the distance towards the final man. The man pulled out his radio, but Casey kicked it out of his hands. Casey pivoted and landed consecutive shots to the face with each fist. The man was knocked out.

Casey got on his radio. "Bartowski, the roof is clear. Bring Walker in."

Chuck immediately pulled out of the parking lot and drove to the warehouse. He passed by Jimmy's car and let Sarah out. Sarah went in the same entrance as Jimmy and began to look around. She spotted a ladder leading to a catwalk above the main floor of the warehouse. She quickly went to the ladder and climbed.

"Mr. Murdock, so nice of you to show."

Kolinova showed a lot more cockiness than he did a few hours earlier. Having several guns aimed at Jimmy may have been the reason for that. To his credit, Jimmy remained calm.

"The pleasure is all yours, obviously."

"Do you have my accounts?"

"Let the lady walk over here first."

Kolinova took Jimmy's gun from the thug who commandeered it and pointed it at him. "You don't really think I'm that stupid, do you? Let's see the accounts."

Jimmy glared at him but pulled out the memory stick, which was instantly snatched by the man behind him. He tossed it to Petrov. Petrov inserted it into his laptop and started running the files.

"These look like the files, Mr. Kolinova." Petrov continued to verify the accounts. Kolinova signaled behind him, and the man behind Forrest pushed her forward. She stood next to Jimmy.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Forrest whispered angrily at Jimmy. "They're going to kill us anyway, and you're giving them the accounts? What the hell were you thinking?"

"Right now I'm thinking I may kill you first, so shut the hell up and wait a minute," Jimmy replied, trying to keep his anger in check.

"Enough!" Kolinova shouted. "You two can have your lover's spat after we're done."

"And how do you know your new bosses won't turn on you if this works out, Sergei? What use will they have for you after they've taken over the government? Isn't that right, Yuri?" Jimmy directed the last question at Kazanov.

Outside, Chuck's laptop beeped.

"Right on schedule, Jimmy," Chuck said with a smile. He began downloading the information being transferred.

"And how do you know who I am?" Kazanov walked up to Jimmy, his antagonism beginning to show.

"Oh, you'd be surprised what kind of information I can find, such as the link between you and Viktor Ogarkov. Isn't that who you're working with? After all, everybody thinks you were suicided 17 years ago. Dead men can't run for office, unless you live in Chicago."

Sarah snuck quietly along the catwalk with her gun drawn. She moved herself into a position where she had perfect aim at Kolinova.

Kazanov's anger suddenly died down. A smile came across his face. "It's a shame you figured all of that out and won't be able to tell a soul. Perhaps I won't be able to bring back the Soviet Union myself. But Ogarkov can, and he'll rely on me as a close personal advisor in order to reshape our country. The U.S. was badly wounded nine years ago for a measly couple of million dollars. Imagine what kind of havoc Ogarkov and I can create with $2 billion."

Chuck smiled at the recording over Jimmy's microphone, which just captured Kazanov's admission of working with Ogarkov. "I guess it's true in Russia as well; organized crime is an oxymoron."

Now it was Jimmy's turn to smile. "Of course, you're assuming you have the actual files. And as everybody knows, when you make an assumption, you make an ass out of you…and umption."

Forrest looked extremely upset and hissed at Jimmy. "We're about to be killed, and you're quoting crappy movies?"

"Would you rather we not bail your ass out?" Jimmy hissed back.

"Sir, we have a problem," Petrov looked up from the computer in a state of panic. He immediately pulled out the memory stick.

"Ah, a little too late there, Urkel. All of the data on that computer was just transmitted to CIA servers. I hope there wasn't anything important on there like, I don't know, your business dealings or your accounts where you launder money? Or lists of the people who work for you in Russia and abroad? The CIA and FSB are on pretty good terms these days, and they like to share a lot. It's all very Sesame Street-like."

Forrest shook her head. She couldn't believe they put all of this together in a span of 3 hours. Unfortunately, she didn't know how many rabbits they had left in their hats to pull out. Watching a dozen men emerge to join their boss suddenly made the probability of another miracle very slim.

"Oh, I have a text message," Jimmy boasted as he looked at his mobile phone. "It says, 'the nerd in me really, really wants to say checkmate right about now'." Jimmy shrugged. "Whatever that means. Personally, I'd use a colloquialism that's more in tune with the city, like 'You just rolled snake eyes' or 'I guess what happens in Vegas won't stay in Vegas'."

Kolinova's cockiness was completely gone and replaced with uncontrollable rage. "I thought it would be my pleasure to kill this bitch, but now I will take even greater pleasure in killing you!" Kolinova put Jimmy's gun to his forehead. Jimmy smiled.

Kolinova pulled the trigger. The gun clicked.

Kolinova's shock is replaced by the realization Jimmy never loaded the gun he knew they would take off of him.

Jimmy spun and grabbed the automatic rifle from the man behind him, whipping it around and nailing the man in the head with it. He pivoted and fired at the man behind Forrest before he could react. Kolinova pulled out his own gun, but Sarah opened fire, missing him by mere inches. Jimmy pushed Forrest towards a support beam while he opened fire at the men on the other end of the warehouse. Melekhin charged towards his boss and fired at Sarah. He led Kolinova and Kazanov out of the main area of the warehouse. Sarah ducked down out of the line of fire and ran along the catwalk. Jimmy exchanged fire with Kolinova's men.

"I'm going after that bastard!" Forrest quickly exclaimed as she ran in the direction of Kolinova. Jimmy gave her some cover fire.

Casey heard the shots below. He quickly went to the edge of the roof and retrieved his climbing rope. He fired two pitons into the roof on either side of a skylight. He cut the rope to the appropriate length and reattached his harness.

Outside, Chuck could hear the entire exchange and began to worry. He got out of the car and was ready to run in. He then saw the car Jimmy drove to the warehouse. The keys were still inside.

Sarah made it along the catwalk to a ladder behind Jimmy leading to the floor. Several of the men firing at Jimmy turned their attention towards her. Jimmy spotted them and looked behind him to see Sarah pinned back from the ladder. He pulled out the two guns hidden underneath his shirt. He looked up at Sarah.

"Two! One! NOW!"

Jimmy flew out from behind the support beam and opened fire on Kolinova's men, attempting to draw everybody's attention. It worked. The men shooting at Sarah turned their guns on him. Sarah immediately jumped for the ladder and slid down it to the main floor. She ran to the beam where Forrest was. Jimmy ran out of ammunition and looked back and forth. He was 40 feet from any sort of cover.

"Oh, that was stupid," he said as they were about to end his life.

A loud crash was heard from above, and Sarah had to duck out of the way of falling glass. Casey dropped through the skylight with both guns out, firing at will at Kolinova's men. Jimmy took the opportunity to sprint back to the beam next to Sarah. Casey unhooked himself from the ropes and joined them. The remaining men continued to fire.

"Like I said, we've got to be the dumbest spies on the planet," Jimmy said in a panic as he reloaded.

"Las Vegas P.D. must have heard the gunfire by now," Sarah breathlessly replied. "They've got to be sending someone."

"OK, who's up for going out Butch-and-Sundance style? I mean, besides Casey?"

"Wait," Casey stopped them. He suddenly listened intently on his earpiece. Sarah and Jimmy also heard the same thing he did.

Sarah was confused. "Why am I hearing a car engine…"

A loud crash behind them made them dive out of the way. Jimmy's car burst through the double doors where he entered and sped towards Kolinova's men. All of them dove out of the way, dropping their weapons in the process, as the car crashed into the brick wall at the other end of the warehouse.

Sarah and Casey immediately got up with their weapons drawn. Three of Kolinova's men ran out of the warehouse while the other five, including Petrov, lay on the ground in a daze. Jimmy readied his gun.

"I'll go get Forrest!" He ran off in the same direction Forrest did a few minutes ago. Sarah went to the car while Casey covered the men on the ground.

"Tell me he wasn't in this car. Tell me he wasn't in this car," she muttered to herself in a state of shock as she inspected the car. Under the deployed airbag, the surveillance recording equipment Jimmy was using was wedged against the accelerator.

Chuck slowly walked in from where the car entered. "Did that work?"

Sarah turned to see Chuck and was relieved. "You have GOT to be out of your mind."

Chuck was a little offended. "Oh, so Casey can send a car at us and it's OK? I didn't even get a chance to say a bad pun!"

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Jimmy moved cautiously along a hallway in the warehouse, gun drawn, looking for Forrest. He made a turn down the hall and ran into two of Kolinova's men. One landed a punch on him, and he dropped his gun. He went after them, delivering a roundhouse kick to man who hit him and landing a vicious hook on the other. He recovered his gun and quickly ran down the hall. A third man emerged at the end of the hall and fired at him. Jimmy dove into a nearby office. He reached out with his arm to fire at the man, but he missed. The man slowly walked down the hall and entered the office, looking for Jimmy. Jimmy saw him enter behind the open door and emptied his clip into the door. The bullets penetrated the door and hit the man. He collapsed dead to the ground. Jimmy reloaded and continued down the hall.

Jimmy heard noises ahead of him. He moved quickly down the hall. A boot suddenly hit him across the face, and Jimmy staggered back. Melekhin emerged from behind a storage cabinet and delivered another roundhouse kick at Jimmy's head. Jimmy fell to the ground. Melekhin went after the prone Jimmy. Jimmy pushed off the ground and mule-kicked Melekhin back. Melekhin tried to land several jabs, but Jimmy blocked each one. He tried to deliver another roundhouse kick, but Jimmy caught his leg in mid-spin and brought his own leg up, connecting with Melekhin's head. Melekhin went down but bounced back up immediately. Jimmy went on the attack and landed a hook on Melekhin. He followed it up with a second hook and a third. Melekhin threw another punch, but Jimmy ducked down and brought his knee up into Melekhin's stomach, who doubled over. Jimmy spun in the air and landed a final boot at Melekhin's head. Melekhin went down and did not get back up.

Jimmy continued down the hall towards the voices. A figure emerged ahead of him in the hallway, and Jimmy pointed his gun.

"Oh, it's you." Forrest was relieved to see Jimmy instead of Melekhin. Jimmy looked around quickly as he walked towards Forrest.

"Where's Kolinova? I thought you were chasing him."

A man grabbed Forrest from behind and put a gun to her temple.

"Give me the accounts! Now!"

Kolinova was in an insane rage. He practically drilled the gun into Forrest's head. Jimmy was taken by surprise. He looked fearful. He dropped his gun.

"Now!" Kolinova screamed even louder than before.

"Don't do it! He'll kill both of us!" Forrest's voice shot up several levels of fear as well.

Jimmy was almost catatonic. Something in his mind had snapped. He pulled out the memory stick with the accounts on it. Forrest was awash in panic. Jimmy threw the memory stick towards Kolinova.

The memory stick landed two feet in front of Jimmy.

Kolinova's surprise was the opening Forrest needed. She knocked his arm up and dove out of the way. Jimmy reached behind his back and quick-drew his other gun and fired. Three shots went through the middle of Kolinova's chest. He slumped against the wall from the impact. He slid down as his blood covered the wall behind him.

Forrest slowly got up and peered down the hall at Jimmy, who lowered his gun and retrieved the memory stick. Forrest shook her head.

"The four of you took a huge risk in coming here. You shouldn't have done that. It would have been safer to leave me for dead."

"Yeah, and maybe we should have," Jimmy replied with considerable anger. "Or perhaps you should be thankful we don't always do the right thing. If we followed your orders yesterday, we would have…"

Jimmy saw Forrest's eyes go wide. She ducked down, and Jimmy whirled around to open fire at Kazanov behind him at the other end of the hall. Kazanov fired as well. Both of Jimmy's shots hit Kazanov in the head. All three of Kazanov's shots hit Jimmy in the chest. He collapsed to the ground. Forrest looked up.

"Slade!" Forrest crawled quickly over to Jimmy, who was not moving.


	11. ThankYou, ThankYouVeryMuch

_And we come to the end of this story. This one was a lot of fun to write, and hopefully it was fun for you to read. A big thanks to those of you who took the time to review it, especially Snickrz, Jagged1, NickyR, DLK, Jimmy144, and Jinxed97. It's always good to hear comments from people, since that's how you know your efforts are well worth it. _

_Got the final chapter in before Thanksgiving, which I wasn't sure if I could do, and we get back the gang in January with 3 episodes in two nights. Not a bad week for me._

_Enjoy the final chapter, stop by my ChuckMeMondays challenge, and I'll see you in "**Chuck vs. 3 Weddings, a Funeral, 2 Retirements, and a Birthday**."_

_

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_**North Las Vegas  
September 19, 2010  
5:20 PM**_

Forrest crawled over to Jimmy, who was lying on the ground. She looked back and forth down the hallway to see if anyone else was coming as she knelt by him. He remained motionless.

"He's out of his frickin' mind," she muttered to herself as she checked him, her fear increasing exponentially. She put her hands carefully on his chest. Her eyes widened.

"Tell me he wore one, tell me he wore one…" Forrest ripped open Jimmy's shirt. She sat back on her knees and exhaled deeply.

"Thank God." She started unstrapping Jimmy's bullet-proof vest. Jimmy's head swayed back and forth slightly. Suddenly he bolted up, coughing intensely.

"Goddamn it!" Jimmy strained to take in a breath. "Son of a bitch, that hurts!" Forrest held him up. Jimmy's breathing rasped for several seconds before returning to normal.

He came to his senses and noticed Forrest. "You OK?"

Forrest shook her head. "You must drive Bartowski and Walker nuts like that. Am I OK? I didn't just take three to the chest." She stood up and carefully pulled him up with her. Jimmy weakly stumbled while clutching his chest. Forrest hung on to him.

"Well, I wasn't sure how good my aim was."

Forrest looked down the hall where Kazanov was not moving. "Pretty damn good, I'd say."

Jimmy and Forrest started walking down the hall. "I guess your mission was a success after all." Jimmy couldn't prevent a little resentment from showing through.

Forrest looked down at the ground. "You surprised me. I didn't think you had it in you. I thought you had frozen up when Kolinova grabbed me."

Jimmy exhaled slowly, although it was still quite painful for him to breathe. "I was going to take that shot one way or another. I have to admit I was almost ready to put the round through your shoulder to nail him. I wasn't sure if I could, but then I just had to remind myself what a nasty, cold-hearted, unfeeling bitch you are."

She gave a little shrug. "I guess I can live with that."

Jimmy fixed her with a hardened glance. "And thanks to me, you will."

He quickened his pace down the hall and left Forrest behind, who was feeling a significant amount of indignity. Chuck and Sarah came running from the other direction.

"Everybody OK? What happened?" Chuck asked in a rush as he noticed Jimmy walking in considerable pain with blood on his face. Sarah and he went to Jimmy's aid.

"It's fine, it's fine," Jimmy tiredly replied. "The inventor of Kevlar has another satisfied customer."

Chuck and Sarah helped Jimmy remove his shirt and vest as they walked to the warehouse floor. Casey was still keeping watch on the remaining members of Kolinova's organization.

"You take care of the Baryshnikov's?"

"Yeah, they won't doing any ballet or be dating a New York sex columnist anytime soon," Jimmy replied, still wincing in pain.

Casey looked at him with some condescension. "What's wrong with you? Still depressed about Siegfried and Roy retiring?"

"I got shot again, thank you very much," Jimmy seethed at Casey. "Three bullets from a Makarov 9 mm will give you quite a case of heartburn."

Casey shrugged. "You were wearing a vest."

Jimmy growled and turned to Chuck. "Is there anything that impresses him? Do I need to learn how to control metal? Have steel claws come out of my fists?"

"Actually, Wolverine's claws were made of adamantium…" Chuck corrected.

Jimmy was exasperated. "Dude, seriously?"

"You just referenced _Sex and the City_ and you're giving ME crap?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes and shook his head in frustration. "Touché."

Las Vegas Police officers streamed into the entrance of the warehouse with their guns drawn. Sarah pulled out her I.D.

"CIA, people. We have a few more down the hallway."

"I got it, Sarah," Jimmy replied. He took 4 officers with him to locate the 6 men in the hallways while the remaining officers surrounded the others on the floor.

Sarah glared at Forrest. "Not bad for an incompetent idiot."

Forrest slowly walked away, her posture giving away a severe case of humility.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 19, 2010  
9:00 PM**_

"This operation was supposed to be suspended. Can someone explain to me what is going on?"

General Beckman was in the foulest of moods as she addressed the five agents in Las Vegas over videoconference. Sarah and Chuck looked towards Forrest, expecting her to explain her actions. Jimmy spoke up instead.

"It was a Hail Mary pass we attempted, General. Chuck came up with the idea to write a program that would pull the information off of Kolinova's laptop and transmit it to the CIA. Kind of like a phishing scam, only it would do all of the work."

"And you actually believed Kolinova would still take the deal after last night?"

"It was Agent Forrest who came up with the manner in which to approach them. She tried to sell them the idea Agent Walker and I were cyber thieves who stole the files, and she was an agent trying to nail us for treason. However, since none of us nor the CIA knew it was Kolinova's group that was behind the arms deal Forrest broke up in '02, we had no way of knowing Kolinova had us figured out already. Forrest was taken hostage, and I had to participate to maintain the cover for as long as possible. We went in to retrieve the files. Obviously, we were successful in getting all of the details of Kolinova's empire, and we have the link to Ogarkov on tape."

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey turned to Jimmy in complete surprise. Jimmy put his hand out behind his back to tell them to wait. Beckman kept the same impassive look on her face.

"I am not thrilled with the five of you attempting a stunt like that. But your constant success out in the field gives you a small amount of leeway with this agency. I suggest you not push your luck like that in the future."

Sarah looked toward Jimmy and then back to General Beckman. "General, what about Agent Slade? He was crucial to the success of this mission, especially in rescuing Agent Forrest."

Beckman paused for a moment. "I will discuss his situation with my advisors here. For now, he can return to Nellis to complete his training. I expect full reports from all of you, since the FSB will be having a few words with the Cabinet and the Prime Minister in the morning. Good night."

The monitor went blank. Chuck breathed a huge sigh of relief, and Forrest's impassive look slowly faded to one of relief as well. Forrest looked at Jimmy for a long moment, alternately puzzled and humbled. She turned and quietly exited the room. Chuck, Sarah, and Casey continued to stare at Jimmy.

"What was that all about?" Sarah asked Jimmy, both confused and annoyed. "She tries to get you fired, and you lie a blue streak to keep her out of trouble? Why?"

Jimmy shrugged and smiled. "You saw how she walked out. She knows she screwed up big time, and the people she repudiated had to bail her out. She can't treat you the same way anymore. That has to be worse than any punishment Beckman could give her, wouldn't you say?"

Sarah shook her head. "You are way too forgiving for your own good."

"I'm not going to Washington anymore, right? And somehow I doubt any of you are still in Beckman's doghouse. No harm, no foul, if you ask me."

Casey looked at him with the same respect he'd give to a cockroach. "Love to see you try that approach when some al Qaeda cell captures your sorry ass." He left the room with a disgusted look on his face.

Jimmy quietly growled. "One of these days, I'm going to chain his ass to a wall and hire a bunch of 5-year-olds to sing the Barney song to him over and over again."

Chuck gave a small laugh. "You'll have to wait in line behind us." Chuck wrapped his arms around Jimmy. "Congratulations, you still have a job!"

Jimmy returned the hug. "Thanks to you three, I do."

"Oh, stop it," Sarah said, still annoyed at him. "Would you take at least a little credit for today?"

"OK, I'll take…this much," Jimmy replied, holding his index finger and thumb about a millimeter apart. Sarah gave Jimmy a light smack to the back of the head.

Chuck had a big smile on his face. "Come on. Let's go celebrate you not going to D.C."

Jimmy shook his head. "Nah, it's your last night here. You two should go out and enjoy yourselves…"

"Nope, not this time," Sarah interrupted. She took both of Jimmy's hands and pulled him towards the door while Chuck pushed him from behind. "You're going out with us. We're going to make sure you have a night out before going back to training. And don't even try to tell us you didn't earn one."

Jimmy turned to Chuck. "Is it me, or is she even pushier these days?"

Chuck moved him more forcefully towards the door. "Let's go, Jimmy. I'm gonna find me two waitresses here and pull me a Fredo."

"And after that, you'll be sleeping in Casey's room tonight," Sarah replied without missing a beat.

Jimmy had a huge grin on his face. 'Doesn't always pay to be the guy in the rated R movie, does it."

The three headed out of the hotel room and walked towards the elevators.

_**Wynn Hotel  
September 20, 2010  
10:30 AM**_

"This is ridiculous. I'm not doing it! Even _**I**_ have a small amount of self-respect."

"Oh, please. It's just one time. How often do we get to see you?"

"Is that my fault? I was supposed to be dead."

Chuck went by the bathroom door in Jimmy's hotel room. "Besides, we saved your ass yesterday. This is the least you could do."

Inside the bathroom, Jimmy was doing a slow burn. "Oh, really? You're going with that? Better check the scoreboard on that whole "ass saving" total, Chuckles. I think I'm still a couple of touchdowns up on you right now."

Sarah joined Chuck at the door, completely unable to get the huge grin off of her face. "If you don't come out, we're not going back to L.A."

"Fine, stay in Vegas. I'll still be at Nellis 24-7. You'll have to find something else to do."

"Gee, I wonder if there's anything to do in this town," Chuck sarcastically mused.

Jimmy scoffed behind the door. "Knowing you two, you'd never leave the bedroom. There's less sex at spring break in Cabo."

"Come on, Jimmy!" Sarah was almost pleading now. "We have to see it."

The door opened, and Jimmy stepped out. Chuck and Sarah stared in shock at the sequined jumpsuit Jimmy was wearing, along with a ducktail black wig, long mutton-chop sideburns, and oversized gold sunglasses. They started laughing hysterically.

"This is so humiliating," Jimmy lamented, wanting to hide.

"Oh, that is too perfect! You're almost a spitting image! And I mean the young, hot Elvis," Sarah replied happily.

"I'm not a spitting image, for chrissakes. Elvis had brown eyes."

"Actually, his were blue," Chuck corrected. "He wore colored contacts."

"I have to get a picture of this." Sarah ran over to Jimmy and tossed her mobile phone to Chuck. She put her arms around Jimmy and posed for the picture. Chuck readied the camera on the phone.

"Must I? What are you going to do with it, anyway? It's not like CIA agents can have Facebook pages." Jimmy paused for a second. "Wait, you don't have a Facebook page, do you?"

"Oh, just pose, Jimmy," Chuck admonished. Jimmy put his arm around Sarah's shoulders and jutted his leg out to make an Elvis-like stance. Chuck took the picture and then handed the phone to Sarah. She moved to where Chuck was, and Chuck stood next to Jimmy.

"Come on, let's do the pointing thing," Chuck prodded him. They both did the hip-wiggling, point-to-the-camera pose. Both put a snarl on their faces. Sarah laughed hysterically as she snapped the picture.

"Am I done yet?" Jimmy's patience was running out quickly.

"Come on, give us one line," Chuck demanded. "Just one and that's all."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. _In_ _for a penny, in for a pound I guess. _He wound his hips and did a windmill motion with his arm.

"A-thankyou. Thankyouverymuch."

Chuck and Sarah doubled-over in laughter as Casey walked to the room with his suitcase. He took in the scene and eyed Jimmy with some amusement.

"Oh, thank God. Beckman found a new job for you. I don't have to worry about you being a field agent."

Jimmy glared at Casey, pulled off the wig, and started taking off the sideburns. "I give up." He returned to the bathroom.

"Are you two packed?" Casey directed his question at Chuck and Sarah. "We have to start making tracks to the airport. The taxi line will probably be hell right now, and I still haven't gotten the room charges from the hotel yet."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Jimmy called from the bathroom. "The hotel has a limousine waiting to take you to McCarran. And I already took care of the bill."

The three of them turned towards the bathroom door.

"What are you talking about, Slade?"

Jimmy emerged from the bathroom carrying the jumpsuit on a hanger. "Like I said, they won't leave me alone at this place." He hung the jumpsuit in the closet. "Oh, Casey. I have something for you. A little gift Steve insisted I take, but it's not really my style. But you're a man who appreciates a good bottle of scotch."

He went into one of his suitcases and pulled out a box. He handed the box to Casey. "This is a Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, one of only a dozen made from a single batch in 1943."

Casey pulled the bottle out of the box, and his eyes widened. "Holy crap."

Jimmy turned to Chuck and Sarah. "FINALLY, he's impressed."

Casey was a little dumbfounded. "This must have cost at least $20,000."

"Actually, I think it's closer to $40,000."

"Slade, nobody would ever drink this unless it was the end of the world or some big celebration like a wedding."

"Well, I thought that might be the case, so the hotel sent a couple of cases of Blue Label to your apartment. It'll probably get there before you do. Actually, you might want to call Devon or Ellie to keep an eye on it, just in case Jeff and Lester get wind of it."

"OK, that's the last straw," Sarah said with a very no-nonsense attitude. "What did you do for this hotel, Jimmy? And don't try to pass it off as some ordinary, anybody could have done it BS. What's going on?"

Jimmy threw his arms up in surrender. "Fine, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. A person in the hotel's accounting department and one of their IT people tried to steal some money electronically from the hotel, and I helped the hotel recover it. I just had to hack a few systems and run some traces on what they did. I had the money back within a week."

"How much money did you recover?" Chuck asked him.

"I don't know. A hundred or so?"

"Wow, not bad. $100,000."

Jimmy gave him an odd look. "Million."

All three of them were frozen in shock. Chuck was almost hyperventilating.

"YOU RECOVERED ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!"

"What?" Jimmy still couldn't see the big deal about it. "That's, like, 6 weeks of gaming revenue for them. They've got some pretty rich clients in this hotel. Steve asked the FBI for some help, and they talked to the CIA, and I was sent over."

"Wait, wait. You said Steve gave you the bottle. Wait, Steve Wynn? The guy knows you personally?"

Jimmy told the story with the enthusiasm of someone reading the stock market pages in the newspaper. "I met him once or twice. He stopped by my computer one time to ask for an update, and then he thanked me for recovering the money. Nice guy."

"Hell, let's go before he tells us Wynn flew him to the Super Bowl on his private jet," Casey gritted through his teeth.

"Casey, be realistic. This was April. How could he take me to the Super Bowl? Besides, I was in the middle of training, so I had to turn down the invite to Cannes."

All three stared at him briefly again. Chuck shook his head violently. "That's it. I give up. I'm out of here. This guy could part the Red Sea, and he'd think he was just taking a shortcut."

Sarah went to give Jimmy a hug. "Take care, Jimmy. Come out to L.A. when you're done training."

"You got it, kiddo. Keep an eye on those two for me. Thanks for everything you did. It must have been hard not to give up on me. I sure as hell didn't make your life easy this weekend."

She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for believing in yourself. It's always good to find people you can rely on in this world. You going to be an incredible agent."

Chuck came up and hugged him as well. "Be good, Jimmy."

"I will. I promise, no more fake deaths. I hope so, anyway."

Chuck grinned and hugged him tighter. The three walked to the door with their luggage and gear in tow. As they opened the door, Alex Forrest walked up. Her posture was missing the hardened edge it normally carried.

"I…I just wanted to thank all of you for your hard work. You had no good reason to come and rescue me, but you did it anyway. That took a lot of courage knowing how General Beckman would feel about it. I…was wrong about what I said. It's not simply about the results. You truly are one of the best teams in the CIA, if not the best. I'm sorry it took me so long to accept that. That's a mistake I will never make again."

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey regarded her for a moment, and their postures softened as well. Each of them shook her hand.

"Good luck to you, Agent Forrest," Sarah replied, her voice somewhat measured but friendly.

"If or when I make it out to L.A., I'll definitely take all of you out for dinner," Forrest said with a tiny hint of a smile. "I owe you that at the bare minimum."

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey headed towards the elevators. Jimmy returned to packing, expecting Forrest to leave with them. He heard the door close. As he turned around, Forrest was inside the room. She walked past the closet and glanced at the jumpsuit hanging in it.

"Elvis?" Forrest inquired while pointing at the jumpsuit.

Jimmy tiredly waved it off. "Don't ask."

"Well, I do have a question I really need answered. Why did you let me off the hook? I tried to get you fired yesterday, and you and Walker did the right thing in rescuing Chuck. Was being right enough revenge for you? The hard-nosed, arrogant bitch got her serving of humble pie?"

Jimmy shrugged. "That's what I told Chuck and Sarah."

"But that's not the real reason?"

Jimmy shook his head. "No."

Forrest slowly walked the rest of the way into the room and sat on a chair near Jimmy's bed. "I really need to know why."

Jimmy stared out into space for a moment. His voice was quiet. "A while back I was all alone in this world. Literally. There was nobody I cared about or who cared about me, and there was nobody I could trust. Then I got thrown into this crazy situation. But they trusted me. They believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. I know that sounds corny, but it's true. They treated me better than anybody ever treated me in my life, even my own family. I can never really pay them back for that. And God knows I've tried. I don't know. Maybe…maybe the best I can do is show that same trust to someone else. Trust someone when I have no reason to do so. Maybe it would make the difference for whoever that is.

Forrest sat there in silence, contemplating what Jimmy said. She nodded slowly. "I should have trusted all of you more. Especially you. You are, indeed, a very rare individual. I've never been more wrong about someone before, and I'm very sorry."

Jimmy looked at her and smiled. "I guess I can't really get upset at someone who does the same thing I did to myself for so long."

Forrest rose from the chair. "That's...all I came here for…officially."

Jimmy's head cocked to the side. "Officially?"

Forrest nodded and slowly walked toward Jimmy. She stood mere inches from him and stared into his royal blue eyes for a moment. Her hand slowly glided along his cheek, and she pulled his face to her. She tilted her head and gently placed her lips on his. She gave him a soft, lingering kiss. She pulled away slightly for a moment and stared into his eyes again. Her other hand came up to his face as well. She pulled him towards her with a little more intensity and kissed him with increasing passion. Jimmy's hands slid around her waist as he reciprocated. Their kissing picked up in force and heat.

"Wait," Jimmy said between kisses. "Should we really be doing this if we're working together?"

"The mission is over. I'm not your boss anymore," she replied and kissed him harder, pressing her body against his.

"And your report to Beckman?"

"Withdrew that last night," she whispered breathlessly, determined to take this to the next level.

"Then, then, what is…"

She looked into his eyes with an expression of pure want and desire. "Because you're hot and I'm horny?"

"Oh." Jimmy grabbed her and continued kissing her hard. The two stumbled around in the room, hungrily devouring the other, their lips permanently locked together. Jimmy pressed her up against the wall and started planting kisses all over her neck.

"There's one thing," Forrest panted with her arms well above her head and her eyes closed from such an erotic moment. "We really have to work on this whole 'nice guy' problem you have. Can't always be that way in the field."

Jimmy reached up with both hands and tore her blouse and bra off in one motion. Forrest looked right in his eyes, barely able to contain her lust.

"That's a good start."

She immediately grabbed him and kissed him harder, her tongue dancing deep in his mouth. She turned him and slammed him up against the same wall. She ground her hips into his as she hurriedly unbuttoned his shirt. She ripped the shirt off of him and pressed her breasts into his bare chest as she flitted her tongue at his deep inside their joined mouths. Her hands snaked down between their bodies to undo his belt and zipper. His pants slid to the floor as she pressed into him again and ran her hands all over his body. She hooked her long leg around his body and grinded against him. Suddenly her eyes widened. She looked down between them and looked up again.

"That's an even better one."

Jimmy grabbed her, his voice low and throaty. "Quit being so nice." He took her to the bed.

* * *

Chuck and Sarah walked down the hall back to Jimmy's room.

"It must have fallen out of my pocket, or maybe it was on my suitcase and it fell from there," Chuck said as he looked for his mobile phone. He spotted it by Jimmy's door.

"Oh, there it is." He picked up his phone and then heard noises coming from inside the room. His mouth dropped open in shock. A big smile came across his face.

"No…" He tried not to make any noise as he walked down the hall back to Sarah.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I…think…Forrest is letting Jimmy know how much she appreciates what he did."

It was now Sarah's turn to get a big smile on her face. "You mean…"

"Yup."

Sarah was frozen for a moment. "Wow. I really don't know how to feel about that. On the one hand, she's been a thorn in our side for so long. But on the other hand…nice work, Jimmy!"

Chuck threw his hands up. "Hey, we're in uncharted territory now. Did you ever think Forrest would apologize to us and admit we're a good team?"

"That thought never occurred to me. But clearly Jimmy made a believer out of her, too."

Chuck grinned. "From what she's saying, it's practically a religious experience."

"Oh, stop it." Sarah playfully smacked Chuck on the arm.

Chuck glanced back at the room. "$20 says she breaks him."

Sarah looked back at the room as well. She turned toward Chuck. "You're on."

The two walked down the hall. "Faith in your protégé, Professor Higgins?"

"No, just something Casey reminded me of a year ago."

"What's that?"

Sarah smiled and took his hand in hers. "People will surprise you sometimes, Chuck. People will surprise you."

The two walked to the elevators and headed downstairs to the limousine.


End file.
